Bull's Bridge

Well there we go we have completed the Grand Union Canal proper.  We still have two more walks that we would like to do before the winter - the Wendover Arm of the Grand Union Canal and the Regent's Canal from the Limehouse Basin to Little Venice.

High Rise House Boats

There is a set of double storey house boats just before Bull's Bridge. 

Three Bridges

Here we at the site of an engineering marvel.  We walked up to the bridge over the canal to get a better look of the road over the canal over the railway.  While we were up there we saw a fox (we think) running across the railway line.

We are now standing by the canal under the road bridge with the railway underneath us.

Hanwell Asylum

This is the Victorian Hanwell lunatic asylum happily now converted into flats.

Asylum Dock at Asylum Lock seemed to amuse us.  You know what they say about little things.

Hanwell Flight of Locks

We thought we should take a photo of Hanwell Locks as we lost the ones of Hatton Locks because of the camera problems but with only 5 locks Hanwell doesn't really compare to Hatton's 21.

Made in Birmingham

We thought we had better take a photo of this rather macabre named Gallows Bridge as one of our books was very impressed with the fact that it stated on it where and when it was built.

Brentford's Modern Development

We liked this modern development on the canal at Brentford.

What we didn't like was walking through a disused warehouse that overhangs the towpath.  Boats were obviously able to come right inside the space underneath the warehouse but the water now is dirty and being inside it wasn't pleasant.  Catherine could imagine finding dead bodies in it so we hurried through as quickly as we could.

Gauging Locks

This photo was supposed to show that here there are two locks side by side one for boats going upstream and one for boats going downstream.  

What it does show is how much lovely sunshine we had on this walk.  Who would have thought the weather would be this nice in the middle of October. 

Thames Locks

This is Thames Locks where the Grand Union Canal ends according to one of our books so I don't know what we have just been walking next to!

Shortly after this we had to leave the canal for a short distance and then we nearly set off in the wrong direction due to confusing signs.  There were a lot of them signposting the Thames Path and then we saw one saying Grand Union Canal Walk so we followed it but it was going in the wrong direction (and presumably was going to run out soon as we hadn't been able to walk along the canal in the other direction) luckily Catherine was on the ball so we quickly retraced our steps, crossed a bridge and came across another Grand Union Canal Walk sign which mentioned Birmingham and Braunston so all was well.    

Finishing off the Grand Union Canal

When we did the Southern Section originally we followed the Paddington Arm at Bull's Bridge so we decided that we needed to finish the Grand Union Canal proper.

Here we are in Brentford where the Grand Union Canal flows into the River Thames.