Hello Bulls Bridge (Southhall)

Last night I did venture into “The Fox”, I went early to avoid the quiz night and left after sampling the London Pride, a nice pubby pub, serving food but not taken over by it, bar stools were available which is something I like, I would use it again if passing.

Today I woke at 8 as seems to be about normal these days (who needs alarm clocks) and after breakfast got myself ready and pulled pins at just after 9, I had a busy day ahead, the Hanwell Flight of locks (97-92)

Looking ahead to some of the flight

Looking back at the last of the flight 

and Norwood Locks (91-90) so eight in all, and I had an appointment to meet Pete the diesel boat at Bulls Bridge.

Things did not go well when on reaching the first of the locks I could not get onto the landing area, there is a bridge just before the lock and the river Brent flows into the canal at this point, there was so much silt and debris I just ground to a halt and as i attempted to reverse back the outflow from the leaking lock gates took the bow and started to swing me around, I tried backwards, I tried forwards, I tried poleing, I gave up, fortunately at this point it was wide enough for my boat to do a full 180 degree turn or else I would have ended up wedged across the canal, so as the boat swung around I thought to myself “that was fun, maybe come back and have another go at that” so back I went the way I had come, winded and back towards the lock, this time I moored before the bridge and it went ok. Off I go and set the lock ready for me, back on the boat, pushed off and away I went only to find myself grounded again, this time a bit of reversing got me to within five foot of the bank but I couldn’t move any further, the boat was far enough back from the lock to not be pushed by the outflow, but I was again stranded, it was a “Happyness is a Cigar called Hamlet” moment, for those of you who remember the TV ads.  At this point a lady dog walker appeared so I asked if she minded just pulling the boat back a little, luckily she  was a nice lady and agreed and between her pulling and me reversing I was able to get off the boat and pull it even further back away from the lock, attempt three saw me swing wildly across to the far side of the canal with a fair amount of engine power just avoiding the far bank foliage and joy upon joy I was into the first lock, this whole fiasco had taken best part of an hour so while I was in the lock I made a cuppa.

From that point on everything went as it should apart from  me heading for a very handily placed bollard at one of the locks only to find it was in fact a white plastic bag, you have to laugh at times like these. In the middle of the flight whilst waiting for the lock to fill about nine lady walkers appeared, they were very curious, normal question is, is it cold? But this time I got is it damp, do your clothes smell, is it your hobby, where have you come from, where are you going, and even do the locks fill automatically (now that would be nice), well as I said before, you have to laugh, but they were all very pleasant.

So onto Bulls Bridge

Bulls Bridge Paddington through here

Handy for the Store, Black overhead

, Tesco have kindly built or refurbished some 24 hour visitor moorings right outside their store so that’s my home for the night,


I ventured down the weed hatch again and was pleasantly surprised, not as much of the rubbish that I had cruised through had got caught on the prop as I had anticipated, just this little assortment.

I showered, visited the store, and then right on time about 6pm Pete arrived with diesel and smokeless coal for me, a bit dodgy in the dark and it did start to get slippy he said as the temperature was dropping fast but he had it all done in good time so I now don’t need to worry for another month at least I hope.

 Totals Today: 8 Locks : 4 miles (included the back and forth)