7th October 2015. To the Canal Museum at Battlebridge basin.

Dank, drizzly morning. We made our way back down to Little Venice and turned right into the Regents Canal. After a short straight section we went through the Maida Vale tunnel, meeting the boatbus on the way.

Entering the Regents Canal.

The boatbus waits for us to come out of the Maida Vale tunnel.

Soon we were in very grand territory, with huge mansions along the canal to the right and very posh flats and private gardens to the left. It is, unsurprisingly, not possible to moor anywhere on this Regents Park stretch!

 

 

We went past the zoo, where there was no sign of the African hunting dogs. Probably, like Scooby, they were huddled up inside against the rain. All we could see were peacocks and other birds in the aviary.

Looking back towards the aviary of London Zoo.

Leaving the zoo we passed Cumberland basin with it's interesting Chinese restaurant.

We were soon at Camden lock, the first of a flight of three. We were helped by three lock-keepers who said we were the first boat through that day. Lots of duckweed and rubbish rather spoiled the romance of the place, as did all the building work going on all around. This didn't deter the gongoozlers, of whom there were many. Unfortunately there was no opportunity to stop and look around as there is nowhere to moor. The few short visitor moorings we saw all day were double moored by boats already. This is a shame as it takes a long time to get to London by boat and when you do, it's not possible to stop anywhere to look around like you can everywhere else on the network.

 

One of the helpful lock-keepers at Camden locks.

We made our way through the remaining lock at St Pancras and found the mooring by the Canal Museum which we had previously booked by phone. It is £10 per night but we can stay here tonight and tomorrow night but will need to leave it between 10am and 3pm. The school trip boat moors here during the day. Jo is seeing friends tomorrow so Robin and Scooby will have to find a spot to lurk or go for a solo cruise for 5 hours! This bit of canal is proving much more challenging and although there is a 24hour berth at Limehouse basin that we will head for on Friday, after that it may be a dash through the Olympic Park without seeing much and off up the River Lea to find a place to rest our heads.