Watford

We woke up to glorious sunshine on Monday so decided to cruise for the day.  We met this Geordie couple at Copper Mill lock, they had been down to London for an NFL game at Wembley.  They had stayed in the B&B at Black Jacks Mill where we had moored for the previous two nights.  They were fascinated by canals and couldn't understand why locks had to be built; they thought that it would be easier to have built them without locks.  I suppose the North East has fewer canals than elsewhere.



We stopped at a large Tesco in Batchworth so Karen could stock up with provisions although access was a little precarious through the railings; not very customer focused.



Batchworth lock is interesting as there are two locks.  The one on the left leads into a dead end arm for private moorings and the main line is on the right.   This is the sort of time you need to have read your navigation notes otherwise there would be a panic knowing which lock to choose. 

We joined a couple called Mike and Ayleen and locked up a few locks with them.  They were younger than us but had retired early and bought a brand new boat to travel the system whilst renting their house out.  Their boat was in a different league to ours - money was clearly no object.  We left them at Cassio Bridge lock as they needed to fill up at the water point there and we carried on into Cassiobury Park itself.  We moored at Iron Bridge lock in the middle of this 190 acre park that has access from Watford town centre.

On Tuesday morning we went for a walk around the park and Buddy had great fun with a few friends.  He makes us laugh as he chases squirrels and cannot understand how they go up trees and he cannot.  He is often to be seen on his back legs staring up at trees.

In the afternoon we walked around Whippendell Wood that has the remains of an avenue of lime trees that were planted over 300 years ago running through it.