AROUND a year ago, we dreamed a plan of a fortnight's break on our boats from Loughborough to London, writes Ed Maltby.
We set the dates for the last two weeks in August. We booked our slot on the visitors mooring at Rembrandt gardens in little Venice, by email—all no problems with email communications with CaRT.
Miles of moored boats
We set off and made the trip, and yes some of the paddles were very heavy (way too heavy for my son who since a young age of five has pushed and pulled big lock gates around), and some locks we had to leave empty. There were miles of moored boats, sometimes making it slow going!
On the plus side we did the 150 miles and 133 locks to London in seven days, we always found a mooring place, maybe not always near a pub, but there are some beautiful rural locations all the way. The moorings at Rembrandt gardens are fantastic, and had we not managed to book, we noticed there were plenty of vacant moorings further up Paddington Basin. Returning home was also done in seven days, made easier of course by those empty locks...
Memorable trip
All in all we had the most memorable trip out, with good weather. My only regret was doing it all in a fortnight and having to do fourteen hour days to complete the trip! I would do it again, as long as we had time to enjoy some of the fantastic spots on the way.
(Ed Maltby, Nb Inguz)