Back to Packet Boat

Last day for this season - just an hour and a half back to Packet Boat Marina. The morning again started bright and sunny but distinctly chillier.

Opposite to where we moored overnight is an unusual dry dock - constructed from an old steel barge. One end can be opened to allow a boat to be moved inside and then the hold is pumped out, leaving the boat dry for work on it, typically blacking the underwater part of the narrowboat.

One of the results of photographing the same stretch on successive trips is that changes c an be tracked. Alongside the M40/A30 bridge used to be a gravel wharf, filling boats that carried their cargo a few miles south to an aggregate processing plant. The traffic ceased a while back but last year we noticed that the loading gear was still in place (see)  but now it has been cleared away and replaced with a private narrowboat mooring.

 

At Uxbridge Lock a wide beam boat from the learning disability charity based at the Red Lion Lock at Nash Mills came through the lock. They had been out for several days, enjoying the opportunity to join in working the locks.

Not sure if this boat could make it under some of the bridges if it ever decides to move on!

Oops - not as life-threatening as some pictures we have seen recently.

Another converted lifeboat - this one looked as if it had a ballast issue although if it had its maximum stated load of 70 passengers it might not need to be weighed down so much!

A mile long straight section forms most of the run to the final lock of the trip. Uxbridge Gas Works Bridge 187 is in the middle.

All too soon we arrived at Cowley Peachey Christine to boat cleaning, Mike made the same trip as last year to collect the car from Milton Keynes. Other than some tiresome congestion delays on the motorways, the journey went smoothly - the public transport leg especially.

3.1 miles - 2 locks

Shops

Tesco just below Cowley Peachey Junction