Paddington Basin in London
After watering up at Bulls bridge it was off down the Paddington Arm. At times it was hard to comprehend that we were so close to London as we passed through some quite rural areas. On the other hand some places were so defaced with graffiti it was quite obvious that we were in suburbia.
Again we were surprised by the lack of moored boats except in the designated long term mooring areas. Even Willow Tree marina was small compared to marina's up North. On arrival at Little Venice there were no available moorings so we pulled onto the water point to talk to Mike and Denise over what we could do. We had no sooner stopped when an employee from the London Waterbus co told us we couldn't stop there. He did his utmost to put us off staying in the London area and told us that there were no moorings available anywhere,but we pushed on into the Paddington Basin where we found only 5 boats in residence, surprise, surprise. We picked our moorings and within an hour 5 other boats arrived filling all remaining berths. The basin is lovely but due to building construction the moorings beyond the Helix bridge are unavailable until further notice. This bridge and the fold up bridge outside the M&S building seem to me to be an extravagant luxury as they only reduce pedestrians journey but a very short distance saving them mere minutes in travelling time. I hope the developers paid for the bridges and not BW.
Large mural approaching Little Venice was made from litter by Stowe Youth club.
692 locks, 893 miles, 25 Tunnels, 39 swing bridges and 19 lift bridges since Nov 2006
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