Paddington Basin

We were still a little apprehensive about finding a mooring space in Paddington Basin especially as our plans for the rest of the week rather depend on it. So, Mike set off in good time, leaving the other two still to have breakfast.

Engineer's Wharf

It was a quite pleasant day, despite the forecast for rain. We made good time with no incident to report and only a handful of boats on the move. We passed Engineer's Wharf where a couple of moorings are up for grabs on the Waterscape web site - definitely not cheap!

North Circular Aqueduct

When we reached the aqueduct over the North Circular Road, we paused for a few moments to let Jess onto the towpath to look at the traffic below and to hear the tremendous noise that it makes - and it was not especially busy!

Little Venice

We expected to take about 3 and a half hours to reach Paddington and it was much on that schedule that we reached Little Venice. After so little traffic it was as always that at the narrows that we met a boat coming the other way. They planned to turn around and come back for the water point, which was made a little more difficult to approach as a BW workboat was on the mooring. As they were turning, being a shortish boat they did not have to go as far as we expected, w made a very brief stop to empty the elsan before completing the last lap of the journey into Paddington Basin.

Fortunately there was space - at least two and possible three spaces to choose form. We turned at the end and then reversed into a pontoon mooring - and then settled down to lunch, another helping of Christine's warming soup. Jess especially enjoyed the crunchy toast which she dunked into the soup!

Moored in Paddington Basin

Time then to take advantage of central London. We opted to walk down Praed Street to the entrance to Hyde Park, passing the front of Paddington Station on the way. Christine had researched yesterday what might be available and so w walked along to Kensington Gardens and the Princess Diana Memorial Playground. Along the way Jess discovered the interesting sounds made by heaps of autumn leaves as well as spotting several squirrels and lots of birds. We also checked out the Two Bears drinking fountain.

Two Bears Fountain

Elfin Tree

Alas, a problem with blocked drains meant that it had had to close for the rest of the afternoon, so we consoled ourselves with an ice cream, after taking a look at the Elfin Tree (restored with the encouragement of Spike Milligan)

We walked down to Round Pond and Jess found that the pigeons were up for a chase! Although we missed the Peter Pan statue we did see one of a horse.

As an alternative, we did find another play area which Jess very much enjoyed - taken a lot of time to work out for herself how to negotiate the various climbing apparatuses!

Back eventually to the boat where Jess and Granny realised that they had forgotten to look for replacement felt tip pens as almost all of the previous ones had been used up. So they went back across the blue Helix Bridge to tesco where they were able to buy some, whilst Mike set about preparing the roast chicken we deferred from yesterday when we discovered that Jess had had a roast lunch before coming to the boat.

11.4 miles - 0 locks