Our Summer Trips

July saw us going "down south" on the GU, meeting with our daughter Tina, her husband David & granddaughter Helen who had hired a Wyvern boat so that we could explore the reaches of Aylesbury, Wendover and Hemel Hampstead. With our hire boating over the years we have not been lower than Slapton and that was in 1975.

Although the Aylesbury arm was quite hard work it was well worth the effort, very rural right to the last bit into the town which although we were made to feel welcome by the "harbour master" we had decided to moor in the country for the night as it was so peaceful. Continuing down we made it to just before Kings Langley where we turned round leaving enough time to explore the Wendover Arm. We were all impressed by the efforts made at Hemel and Berkhamstead to keep the canal side tidy and even more impressed by the work undertaken so far by the Wendover Arm Trust in their restoration project. We left one boat at Bulbourne and took Westmead up the short arm to little Tring bridge turning at the winding hole and pulling her backwards to the pumping station where we stopped for lunch and a look round. When we returned to the main line l stopped to look in the info box to find that someone had left a note to say that "I turned a 30 footer at the end of the arm by the pumping station": as Westmead is 30ft we will try that next visit. While I had the box open I did give some of the Trust's leaflets to interested visitors. Many locks on this section of the GU, which could explain why we saw so few boats, which is a pity because it was well worth going.

Our second trip was to take us around the Oxford or Thames ring in Westmead going from Pennyland, north to Blisworth where we teamed up with our friends who had hired a boat, then on to Braunston, Napton, Banbury Oxford, down the Thames to Teddington and out into the tidal bit to Brentford, then back up the GU via Hemel and Berkhamstead. The weather was gorgeous all the way and the scenery so varied and beautiful that it was a pity that the trip had to end. We had been advised that to go North first to complete the circuit was the best route and we can now see why: locking was steady on the first part, easy on the Thames with the help of lock keepers, heavy going from Brentford up to the Tring summit, then fairly steady to Fenny Strafford, leaving a nice long rest before getting home to Pennyland. We joined our friends later in the day to tackle the Stoke Bruerne flight after we had moored up at home and joined them by car finishing the day with a well deserved meal in the Boat Inn. In all about 240 miles & 170 locks. Although it was fairly steady going every day to complete in the two weeks we had the advantage of having two young and very beefy lads to assist with the locking: if we had been on our own we would probably have taken just over 3 weeks.