Brentford

Lat/Long N51.48158 W000.30633

Map Reference TQ 17704 77213

Distance 7.4 miles

Total 373 Locks 8 Tunnels

Running total mileage 547.8 miles

We have finished our brief trip down the Thames and am now safely onto the Grand Union Canal above Thames Lock and below Brentford Gauging Lock. The trip down the tidal section passed without incident, the weather held up and it was a pleasant trip. It is quite surprising how ‘countrified’ the outskirts of London appear when you approach on the River/Canal system. I was expecting it to be quite built up on the approach to the entrance to the Grand Union but since you pass Syon Park on the left and Richmond Old Deer park on the right it is amost like being back in the countryside.

Viewing Teddington Lock was quite impressive, I hadn’t realised just how long the barge lock actually is although it is the launch lock that you actually pass through. My attempts to notify London Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) via marine radio failed dismally, I don’t think their transmitters/receivers are particularly good at this end of the Thames. My reasoning for this was because when I was calling them up they couldn’t hear me (I was also on the phone to them at the same time) but the guy from another nearby narrow-boat (nb VOYAGER) came across to tell me that he had heard me calling them quite clearly. We both decided to travel down together to Brentford and although the lock keeper at Teddington told us on departure we were a bit early (he said we’d be pushing against the incoming tide) the trip down was OK and we arrived at Brentford at the time I’d intended, just at or slightly after slack water so making the turn into Brentford cut a bit easier than if we’d left it until the tide  had started to ebb.

Tomorrow we are onwards along the Grand Union.

Not a section of Canal, this is just Teddington Lock!(all 650feet of it)