Grand Union Canal at Batchworth, Rickmansworth

Drove to Rickmansworth and parked by Church Street on a Sunday noon. Walked the steps down to Batchworth Canal Centre and was fortunate to have a canal boat trip waiting to leave. Went inside to find that the centre is just a shop and education tours are by special arrangement only. By the time the kids finished browsing canal boat models on sale, the boat had left. Not another one till 3:30pm.

So we decided to take the bike and start at the canal center. The initial plan was to cycle from midway till the Colne Valley Visitor Center some 6 miles South.

The Grand Union Canal is slightly more lively than River Cam to Cambridge. There are canal boats selling arts and books and some pretty large modern ones moored. One mile in, I realised Wen-Shan were not going to make the round trip. By the time I took a detour to picnic by picturesque Stocker's Lake and missing the turn and ended up north of the lake, it was clear that we would end the cycling early and go on a canal boat trip instead.

The "Pride of Batchworth" goes from Batchworth Lock to Stockers Lock which happened to be the same points we have just cycled. The price is reasonable but there is no interaction except the well detailed route map.