Rowkin Rovings Blog

Where to begin this blog……………………………………

Let us start off at our leisurely breakfast which we dubbed our last supper. Up until now all was okay.

We went through the number 8 lock on our way into Limehouse Basin. You can see the metal plates on the right vertical post. You can also probably make out the rotten wood that is just hanging the lock gate together. At this stage it is still all okay.

Di and Marlene talking to a young lady on the boat that had just joined us in the lock. We were convincing her to learn to drive the boat so that the hard work of the locks can be shared.

The location a minute before the incident happened. We had just approached the last lock of the day and were waiting for the other boat with the young couple to come up and join us.  The sequence of events occurred like this.

The other boat had this man dive in the water and start to swim behind their boat and yelling out he wanted to get onto it. He was screaming out about M15 and blacks ruining the country. He grabbed hold of their rear fender which is just above the propellor which frightened them, and they accelerated away. The man then got out of the water and ran up beside our boat and said to Di “God save the Queen” and “I am not Racist”.  Di was a little freaked, so she started to climb back into the front of the boat. Meantime he came up to this young chap who had stopped during his morning run just in front of our boat. He wanted the young chaps water bottle and when he said no, the crazy guy took a full swing at him and smashed his fist into the left side of the chaps’ head.

The young chap (Will) fell to the ground and his glasses fell into the water. Mr Crazy meantime ran away. Once we had sorted Will out and checked he was okay, the couple from the other boat called the police who appeared on the scene in ten minutes.

It transpired that Mr Crazy was being transported by the London Ambulance Service to a mental health facility when he escaped. He had run along the Regent’s Canal trying to push people in, had hit another guy in the mouth causing damage, jumped into the canal twice and then hit poor Will. The two cops questioned us but then sent two other cops off in the direction we indicated. They had been on the look out for him because of the other assaults plus the ambulance service had an alert out for him. Once the police left the police helicopter appeared overhead and was also involved in the search for the guy. The police did tell us that he had a mental health issue.

We stayed with Will until his girlfriend arrived as he took a very nasty blow. He was such a delightful chap and handled it with utmost grace. We think he was quite chuffed that we were going to put him in our blog but not before we cleared that it was okay with him.

This whole incident really rattled all of us and it shows just how quickly things can happen. We only hope no one else was injured and that poor Mr Crazy receives the help that he desperately needs.

Now Karen our friend who we are staying with in London says that anywhere outside the M25 is Bandit country – we have news for her!!!

It was a bit of rushed farewell to Marlene and Wolfgang, but we should catch up with them soon. We made our way to the Docklands Light rail where we headed over to the Northern Line which took us into St Pancras/King Cross station.

St Pancras is where you catch the Eurostar to France.

We have been to St Pancras a few times before so kind of knew our way around.

We were looking for a piano which has been in the main hall for many years which anyone can play. We have seen this around a number of train stations and shopping centers in the UK and Europe. It is lovely to see people sit down and play and the talent that is out there is awesome. We could have watched them for hours, but we had a train to catch.

It was then onto the Piccadilly Line and out to Southgate where we are going to stay with Karen and Miles for the next ten days.

For dinner we went down to the local pub and it was a total Fawlty Towers evening. Lots of laughter and a fun evening. No one we will forget that meal in a hurry.