Berkhamsted to Marsworth

Wednesday 30th August

It was a much cooler day today and we knew that rain was forecast for later so we set off before 9am.

 The swans had assembled by the boat to give us a send off (ok they were still hoping for a feed)

We passed through Gas locks 1 & 2 which were close together. 

Onward towards Northchurch locks

 The old pumping station had seen better days. 

Soon afterwards we came across this incredible hybrid boat or car or carboat! Never seen anything like it! 

 It also had a motorbike at the front!

Clearly it was a day for strange craft as we came across this odd looking vessel soon after! Looked like it belonged in an episode of Thunderbirds!

At Dudswell locks there were some old houses and a lovely display of pink flowers

 This boat made me chuckle! 

Just before the next lock I saw this lovely flower display on the side of this building. 

The lock itself had a really cute lock keeper's cottage

After this lock we came to Cowroast lock. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_Roast

Cowroast is at the summit of a 3 mile climb. According to the waterways guide, every time a boat crosses this summit level, it draws off nearly 200,000 gallons of water. Before the pumping station was installed at Northchurch it was a nightmare as boats had to wait for water to be drained from the locks before they could proceed. No such problems today. The next part of our journey took us through Tring cut which we thought would be impressive. 

It wasn't really, in fact John decided it was particularly dull. As it had started raining I left him to it but this photo pretty much depicts the whole journey along the cut.

After this we came through Bulbourne Junction where the canal splits and the Wendover branch takes a left turn. We were carrying along the main part of the canal. 

 The noise was deafening as they were tree felling in the gardens of this house.

 This bridge leads the way through to the Wendover arm of the Grand Union canal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendover_Arm_Canal
We were not able to do the Wendover arm on this trip so I have cheated and here is a link which shows the walk along the towpath to Wendover. http://www.bertuchi.co.uk/grandunioncanal07.php

We had to go through the Marsworth locks which were a set of 6 in quick succession. 

 The scenery was lovely here despite the rain. I had to work the locks by myself as no-one to share with unfortunately.

There was a beautiful view over Marsworth Reservoir https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsworth

We saw this detectorist on the towpath. John and I love the TV series the Detectorists and so we have a new perspective on this hobby. Not sure if he found anything of interest or if he will be doing a gold dance!

 This boat had a full gazebo with sides!

   Sadly the Butterfly tearoom was shut! 

 So was the White Lion pub, in fact it was boarded up!

 The cill in the last lock by the bridge at Marsworth was broken and this piece of metal was jutting out. It came out beyond the cill marker and so could be a real hazard to a larger boat.

 Finally we found a nice spot to moor just after the lock.