Hoovering the Towpath

I can guarantee that there are now no crumbs on the towpath of the Grand Union Canal between Cow Roast & Bulbourne Junction.

As it was a lovely afternoon we decided to take Jack & Vera for a nice walk along the canal for a change. We left Liam at home as it would be too much for him and headed off in our sporty red two-seater (a diesel Escort van). We parked up near the entrance to the marina and headed off west. You can tell us, we’re the two people looking longingly at all of the canal boats. I’m the short one with the binoculars.

Jack and Vera don’t go for a walk, they go for a forage. They identified every spot used by a fisherman, and possibly the odd hardy pick-nicker, and cleaned the towpath of any left-over crusts, bait or other unsavoury morsels.

Simon is quite familiar with this part of the canal, although not from quite this angle. Before Jack got ill, he was in training for the Devizes to Westminster canoe race, and used to bring his canoe here for his on-water training due to the long lock-free stretch.

Cow Roast lock is very impressive; it’s the first section of canal I have ever come across where you can actually see the bottom. The walk out to Bulbourne Junction was at a relatively modest pace as Jack wasn’t yet into his stride. We discussed all the boats we passed, judging the merits of their colour schemes against the one we have finally chosen for Muriel. Muriel’s won.  

We saw a widebeam go by heading east. It looked lovely, sporting a huge searchlight on the bow. We met a bunch of anglers as we approached the junction. Most made a point of ignoring us, but one or two made a friendly comment. Jack and Vera were on their leads at this point but still made valiant attempts to steal bait, and one chaps sandwiches. Luckily he was one of the friendly ones.

We admired the junction, and the nearby metal works with an interesting tower and some great sculptures outside. I whipped out my binoculars as I saw more movement there than on the rest of the walk, with flocks of goldfinch, redwing & starling. The only other birds on the walk were mallards, moorhens, blackbirds, a solitary robin, blue tit and fieldfare, and a couple of jackdaws flying over. The only other wildlife was a fox, but unfortunately it was dead and floating in the canal.

On the way back it was a bit of a speed walking event. Once Jack gets going, there’s no stopping him. Well unless that is he comes across a crumb that he missed on the way out. We were racing the light as it was fading fast. We could see a boat ahead of us chugging away. We overhauled it due to Jack’s pace-setting, and saw a cup of tea being handed up to the lady at the tiller of the cruiser stern. The lady said they weren’t going far, just trying to get out of the cutting so it would be a bit lighter before they moored. It looked great. Can’t wait. I even coverted her nice purple knitted hat.

Made it back to the van just as it got dark and headed home to our house - which we love very much - but would still trade it for a life on Muriel.