Into Limehouse Basin

We left Paddington this morning at 7-45 am!!  12 locks and 8 miles later we arrived at Limehouse Basin
at 1-45 pm having had a 30 minute stop for lunch.  The locks are double, deep and heavy and we were on our own all the way.  It was quite a work out!  The biggest problem were the gates that refused to stay shut on their own.  Know the type?

The Regents Canal from Little Venice to St Pancras Cruising Club is really  nice - it goes downhill after that but consider the areas it then goes through:- Islington, Bethnal Green, Stepney??  Mooring opportunities are few and far between and made even more challenging by the amount of boats which appear to be continual moorers and monopolize visitor mooring slots.  The best visitor mooring spot was by the side of Victoria Park but this was closed off for BW maintenance!
(You know.........Traffic lights, traffic cones, diversion signs but ..... no workers!!!)   The water was amazingly clear BUT that meant you could        see the assortment of rubbish lying on the bottom.                        

                                                                                                                               At Camden Lock

Limehouse Basin is lovely!  And................... we are here moored up on the visitor moorings (against a wall where the roof of the boat is level with the top of the wall) all by ourselves!!  It is a bit tricky getting  the dogs off but do-able.

We had a good walk around - saw the Thames where the lock lets boats out and on up to Canary Wharf.  There are some lovely old buildings in the nearby streets and lovely street names steeped in the history of the area.


              Out of Limehouse Lock and on to                                  
              the turbulent Thames.  Notice The 
              Gherkin in the distance.




Lovely old-fashioned street names.  What is the history of this I wonder?





Apparently the Limehouse area was famous for making ropes.  I really like this monument of the gull to mark that fame.









Here we are moored up against the wall in Limehouse Basin.  We are all on our own!

Limehouse Basin - mostly providing mooring for sea going cruisers and yachts.