To Little Venice

Monday 26th October
Today my ankle really aches, doubtless because I had to walk a lot yesterday, so I made a point of taking it easy.

We turned Chalice just north of the General Elliott, and set off south. After the lock at Cowley we had no more locking to do today.

The sky was blue, with only spreading contrails, and most of the leaves are still on the trees - many still green, but most turning yellow or orange. The weather was seasonably mild.

We stopped briefly at Alperton to get milk and a few supplies, but the day has mostly been on of steering through the long pound to Little Venice. We arrived not long after 4 pm and moored. A lot of the regular visitors moorings are made over to 'winter moorings', but we found a place towards the end of the usual mooring places.

I cooked dinner early and spent the evening with my feet up, reading, and then watching 'Life'. Early to bed, to rest my ankle - I want to spend some time doing things now that we are here.

I'm very aware of how different things were this time last year when we were here. It was colder, and our morco failed - it seemed to be working, but the water coming out of it was no more than tepid at best. Alan and I spent a lot of time trying to get it working - to no effect. This year we have the calorifier for hot water, and a new morco as backup. We've also got the completely re-modelled area in the middle of the boat, with seating, better storage, and a useful table - much better than the old 'bunk room' that was used for dumping bags and any equipment.

Locks: 1, Miles: 18.4
Total Locks: 45, Total Miles: 44.3