We set off from Paddington Basin this morning heading towards Limehouse Lock.
We know we will not be able to get all the way to Limehouse as there is a problem with the number 8 lock gate about one mile before the basin. We have a very important appointment at Limehouse Lock on Friday at 3.30pm which has been almost two years in the planning. Some of you will know what we have organised but we will keep it a secret until then for the rest of our readers. We have fingers, toes, legs and arms crossed that our dream will come to fruition.
The trip down the Regent’s canal is quite a contrast every mile you pass. There were three tunnels in the distance we covered today and five double width locks.
These rather modest abodes back onto the canal as well as the London Zoo and not to forget the Camden Markets.
One might hope that one could afford the cleaner to go along with this large edifice.
Whilst Fraser and Wolfgang worked themselves down the three locks alongside the Camden Markets, Di and Marlene jumped shipped and went for a wander through them.
We were so early to the markets that they were still opening all the stores.
The markets are worth a wander through, though like most markets the stores just keep repeating themselves.
By no means was it cheap. There was a very simple headband that they were selling for 18 GBP and did not blink an eyelid as they said it – hence, Di walked away.
Wolfgang brought our attention to this boat which is a mobile library for the canal community. It was pretty cool. We have seen boats used for hair dressing salons, café’s, ice cream shop businesses and of course the theatre group that we saw in Thrupp.
We moored up about halfway to Limehouse and then Di and Fras walked down to the lock which was broken. As we have been travelling along the Regent’s Canal, we kept hearing different rumours about the damage that had been caused to the lock and how long it was going to be out of commission. People tend to over dramatize things, so we wanted to check it out for ourselves. A structural beam has been snapped and both upper gates and lower gates were locked with chains.
At 5.00pm there was a notice released by the Canal and River Trust to say that engineers would be on site tomorrow to do a temporary repair of the beam. This is brilliant news for us in some respect. Only problem is that we do not know how long the repair will take. We will head up there tomorrow morning and maybe, just maybe, the lock will be repaired, and we can continue onto Limehouse Basin. To be continued……………
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