Beginning the journey north

Time for a long overdue blog update.  After a brief shore leave I returned to Mr Bunbury at Hampton Court on 27 Jun when my brother ended his short break aboard.  As ever Dave took good care of her and I had lunch with the family before they hit the road back to the Isle of Man. During a brief shopping trip found a lovely two bottle tantalus in  local antique shop at the right price, for some reason these are usually very overpriced.  My shipmate Harley Bear was not impressed.

After seeing Dave on his way I had a short cruise down the river to Kingston to stock up the larder before heading through Teddington lock on Saturday and back onto the Grand Union Canal. On Sunday I moved onto the Paddington Arm and moored up near the infamous Wormwood Scrubs before heading on to Paddington on Monday. This is a lovely well maintained mooring next to Paddington Station and thus very handy for the city. 

Paddington Basin

Whilst walking along Praed Street I spotted a Tattooist's shop and having been thinking about getting a tattoo for a few months I decided to investigate.  The place turned out to be the Duda Tattoo studio, run by a Brazilian family who have worked in New York and Milan before moving to London this year. After chatting with the owner and checking out his previous work, I when ahead and after a couple of hours I left with a slightly sore arm carrying the phrase "Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think". The title of one of my favourite songs by Jools Holland's big band and my mantra for life.

Having already spent time in London I spent the rest of the week cruising steadily back up the Grand Union canal and arrived today in Berkhamstead. This stretch begins the climb up the Chilterns and has many locks. The pst couple of days have been very hot and on Friday I covered only 5 miles but they included 12 locks. Today was even worse with 12 locks in only 4 miles but it was much cooled today with a few showers to keep me cool.  

Shortly after leaving Paddington I passed this beautiful maintained canal side garden with a row of conifers and decorated wall. A little oasis in the busy city.

The weeks journey passed through some peaceful countryside including Cassiopia Park near Watford and just further north Grove park. The weather was very hot and sunny so the shade of the trees was very welcome.

I plan to spend the weekend in Berkhamstead before continuing north towards Milton Keynes next week.  I gave the engine an early oil change this morning after only 50 hrs. Always wise after a rebuild.