Back to Harefield

We wanted to try and get back to the marina in such time as to beat the evening rush hour on the way across London.   So Pat walked off with Alfie to set the first lock and I left shortly before 7 am.   After Clithero's Lock there was a dead dog floating in the water by the first weir.   Looked like a Dalmation.  Had almost certainly fallen in and, unable to get out, died of hypothermia.  The large barge we had referred to yesterday was moored not far above Clithero Lock, but in the middle of the cut, needing its tender, by the look of it, to get to the bank.   They must have had some serious fun mooring up.  This bit of canal between the lock and the weir is always seriously silted up with rubbish brought down by the river.   Had they known, there are acceptable moorings after the Picadilly Underground railway bridge and before the motorway.The next lock, nicknamed rabbit lock by us because Alfie knows there are rabbits nearby and goes wild, had some obstruction behind the towpath side bottom gate so that it wouldn't open fully, and the towpath side ground paddle did not seem to function at all, although there was nothing obviously wrong.   Then we reached the bottom of Hanwell proper and the first lock, in fact all bar one, were empty considerably facilitating our climb.   The one lock that wasn't empty was kindly prepared for us by a CRT team working there doing a bit of "gardening".  The only problem today was the rack and pinion on the towpath side ground paddle of lock 93 which was slipping.  No problems with water levels.  Moving onwards we had a straightforward passage of our final three locks and were able to leave the marina at 2:30, well ahead of rush hour.