Day Thirty-One - Uxbridge to Brentford

It was a disappointing day as we learned that Brian won’t be joining us for the last of our boat trip or our two weeks stay in Italy. The doctor has advised that it would be unwise for Brian to travel with Ross River Fever. So we are disappointed as we were looking forward to Brian joining us. However, we are obviously not as disappointed as Brian!
We didn’t set out until after nine o’clock as we wanted to ring the Lockmaster of the Thames Locks to book in our boat for tomorrow to enable us to get onto the Thames River. There was no answer and Henk left a message with our details. Henk rang later in the day and found that the office is only opened when the tide is high. We secured a booking for the first boat through at high tide at twelve forty-five. We are yet to secure a licence for the Thames and we will do that tomorrow morning after we find out how to get one!
There were only eleven locks today and six of them were very close together at the Hanwell Locks. This meant I didn’t have to get on and off the boat but merely walk the short distance between the locks.
For the past few days I have been enlisting the assistance of any person showing an interest in the locks. I am getting them to open and close the gates. Yesterday it was a father with two small sons, an Indian chap who spoke little English and a older guy who didn’t have a clue but was eager to learn. Today at the six Hanwell Locks some elderly men were keen to assist and one of them had previously owned a canal boat. They were good company and good assistance!
It’s hard to imagine that we are in London as most of the canal has trees either side. We are close to Heathrow and as we came down the canal we could see large planes ahead of us about to land every two minutes.
All the boaties have been saying that we would like Brentford as the moorings are good and the British Waterways facilities are also good. Unfortunately, when we arrived at Brentford there were no moorings left and Henk had to turn the boat around in a brisk wind. It was exceedingly difficult. We found a mooring a little way back and Henk was able to turn the boat around again and moor ready for tomorrow. When we walked into Brentford Basin we found a notice which said that due to limited space boats needed to double up along the moorings. It was too late for us to find out!
We had a look at the electrically operated Gauging Locks at the Brentford Basin. I will need to operate them when we leave tomorrow. They looked daunting at first but we had a little practice and I’ve got the hang of it.
Photos: A tight squeeze south of Uxbridge; Swans flying towards us; My assistants at the Hanwell Locks; Gallows Bridge made by Horseley Iron Works near Birmingham 1820.