Uxbridge to
Little Venice and beyond
15th
and 16th May 2010.
4 boats, 12 members and a
daughter arrived at Willow Tree Marina at Yeading on the Grand Union
canal.
Several enjoyed
breakfast omelettes in the sunshine by
the marina basin. Sandalos, Allegra (Richard Bailey), Elisa
(Mario Pianta), the Gondolino, Giuletta (club) and the skiff Louisa
(Roger Blackburn and David Knowles) set out under the bridge turning
left onto the canal. Roger followed on the bicycle.
As we progressed up the canal we
passed through leisure parks,rotting industrial, modern industrial,
utilities, sorting offices, Wormwood Scrubs prison across the
fields. Smells of curry and oriental spices emanated from the
factories up wind of us, baking bread from the Hovis factory and then
arrival at the Grand Junction Arms right by the canal on Acton Lane.
The Grand Junction Arms is a quiet
pub that didn’t serve food on a Saturday, we were told, so we had all
taken picnics. Not this Saturday! When our bicyclist
arrived there were about 300 Portsmouth supporters noisily psyching
themselves up for the FA Cup Final. Magically and with the
proper respect due they had nearly all vanished by the time the fleet
arrived but left a pretty chaotic and none too charming pub for
us. However, drinks were good and glass glasses had replaced
footballer special weedy plastic ones. We could sit out looking up the
canal where we were joined by Mike Wilson and his 14 month old daughter
Flora who was taken by Mike in Louisa for her first voyage in a boat
accompanied by Roger and his grandson Seb who also turned up with his
parents. 
The real beauty of this canal starts as you pass the old lock keepers
cottage at the entrance to Little Venice. What a beautiful
triangle of water with attractive houses as back drops an Island in the
middle and the Paddington arm veering South towards Paddington Station
where we left the boats over night. The intrepid Venetian fleet
set off through the tunnel enjoying the odd contretemps with the
tourist boats but once through that tunnel the canal has some
exceptionally beautiful houses with gardens down to the waters edge and
it meanders on passed Lord Snowdon’s aviary and other parts of London
Zoo including a couple of Warthogs smiling down as the boats rowed
passed, eventually arriving at the first lock of the trip (which we
didn’t go through)
A large crowd appeared to be awaiting
us there until we saw on the balcony of a building close by a bride and
groom. We believe most of their guest thought the Venetian boats had
been brought especially for their celebration. On our return to
the Paddington Basin there was the usual debate about where would be
the best place to leave the boats but when this was resolved Juliet
Blackburn produced tea and biscuits for everyone including our latest
visitors Mike Bucher’s granddaughter Leonie and parents. We
nearly all reappeared for dinner at Zizzi an Italian restaurant right
near where we moored the boats.
Next morning with the addition of
Robin Privett and Anthony de Winton but lacking Mike and Vicci and
Amanda Rew we set ‘sail’ at 10.30am. Although the morning had
been quite beautiful the wind was getting up and it got a little grey
with the odd spitty rain. The Grand Junction Arms which serves
lunch on Sundays had totally collapsed under the weight of disappointed
Portsmouth fans returning after the football and then partying until
the early hours of the morning.
They weren’t even serving beer.
We called in at the next water side Sainsbury and got out picnic
lunches and then rowed and rowed and rowed until we reached the Black
Horse pub near Greenford They weren’t very keen on us eating our
picnics but they sold us some beer.
Journeys End
Luckily the sun came out and we had
an enjoyable picnic before the relatively short leg back to the
marina. We got the boats out in warm sunshine and were almost
ready to
pack all the kit which had been taken out ready to put into the cars
when a serious downpour wet us and everything. Not a very
auspicious
end but a most intriguing and varied weekends rowing. Thank you
Robin
Blandy and Mario Pianta for organising it.