PLANS FOR OUR 2004 BIG SUMMER CRUISE


This year our trip will be south, down to London.
We shall set off from our mooring in Braunston on March 31st, along the Grand Union,
passing through such places as Milton Keynes, Leighton Buzzard,
Aylesbury, Berkhamstead, Hemel Mempstead, Rickmansworth, and in to London.
We shall pass through two tunnels, Braunston, 2000 yards long
and Blisworth, the longest navigable tunnel on the system at 3000 yards.
Once in London, we hope to moor in Little Venice,
right in the centre of the city, near Lord's Cricket Ground.
We can moor there for free for up to fourteen nights, providing there is a space.
So, if you expect to be in London, check out our website to see when we'll be there, and come and see us.

After all that fun and jollification, we shall travel along the
"Lea & Stort" navigation, rivers which will take us out to
Bishop's Stortford and Hertford.

After that, we shall come back in to London, and in to Limehouse Basin.
This is the really exciting bit so Trev tells me.
He assures me I shall just love it.........
We shall wait for the right tide and then go out through the lock on to The Thames.
We intend to go out early in the morning, before the commercial traffic starts.
Apparently the wash from these boats adds a new dimension to narrowboating,
which we can do without!!!
We have to go out about half an hour after low water,
so that we travel with the incoming tide.
Our indomitable friend, Cherry, is joining us to do the Thames.
This is the same friend who joined us last year,
and reckoned she'd had more fun with us on the Llangollen
than when she'd been on the Nile!

We shall go back on to the non-tidal Thames when we go through the lock at Teddington,
always presuming we get that far without sinking!
Then we travel up the Thames. We've been told that this is a beautiful stretch of waterway,
so we're looking forward to that.
We shall pass through such places as:
Kingston-upon-Thames, Hampton Court, D'Oyley Carte Island,
Datchet, Windsot, Eton, Maidenhead and Sonning.

At this point, we shall leave The Thames, and branch out on to The Kennet & Avon Canal,
right down to Bristol, and back.
Bold, or foolhardy, people have been known
to go out on to The Severn Estuary at Bristol and travel up to Gloucester,
but I think I shall have had enough excitement by then!
When we have done the K & A (as we boaters call it)
we shall return to the Thames and go to Lechlade, the furthermost navigable point.

Then we shall return and go on to the Oxford Canal, and back oop north to the Midlands!

So, I do hope you'll follow our adventures, and also keep in touch.

Click here for the Summer 2004 Cruise Diary.

Home Page