Berkhamstead and Apsley

We spent Wednesday (14/07/2021) in Berkhamsted, initially finding a laundry and dropping off our washing to be picked up at 15:00 hrs. We were screened from the town by a wooded area, and on the other side of the canal there was Canal Fields which was home to lots of Canada geese.

Vera was delighted to find a ball to play with.

On Thursday (15/07/2021) we set off again along the Grand Union Canal to Brentford, which was 33 miles away according to the first bridge.

We passed some intriguing looking houses.

And some good old canal-side pubs.

Fans of The League of Gentlemen will appreciate this sign.

Judging by the amount of empty beer kegs down the side the Rising Sun was doing good trade despite COVID-19.

A cafe running from the Freebird broad beam boat seemed to be popular too.

We moored up for a lunch of frozen salad (our 12V fridge is over zealou) opposite the attractive looking Fishery Inn.

There were some of our favourites cows, Belted Galloways in the field next to us.

The Belted Galloway is a traditional Scottish breed of beef cattle. It derives from the Galloway cattle of the Galloway region of south-western Scotland, and was established as a separate breed in 1921. It is adapted to living on the poor upland pastures and windswept moorlands of the region.

Steady progress through yet more locks and we moored up in Apsley. We watched an episode of The Handmaid’s Tale from series 2 and Steve and Vera walked to the Fulllers Paper Mill pub for a pint of ESB (Dry July lapse!).

There used to be lots of paper mills here.

There was a whizzy new marina from the Aqua Vista stable here.

Vera made friends with the ladies on board the Vera May narrowboat who invited her for a glass of wine.

We walked back over the new metal footbridge to The Duke.

A sign of the times outside the pub.

We had some strange neighbours next to us on the mooring.