Teddington to Brentford

[boatyboy]

Hi all.We have just spent another month on the Thames,having joined it from the Oxford through the Dukes cut.The moment we swung onto the Thames we felt reborn.so wide and so clean.We headed up to lechlade,(never done that end before).Just love those twisty turny bits that get tighter and tighter the nearer you get to Lechlade,and wonderful scenery.miles of open countryside with hardly any roads or houses.

This river is by far the best in the country(IMHO)and we are sad to be off it.We came out at Brentford today and straight away noticed the amount of rubbish in the canal,make one proud to be British !We both feel like turning round back onto thr Thames.Whilst on the river we met several hire boats with foreigners on board who were heading to the GU.What must they think of all that crap in the water eh.(BW....get your fingers out)

Dave

[Marky_Mark]

I noticed the same a few weeks ago when we came thru brentford, Lots of rubbish and very shallow with lots of silt between the thames lock and brentford BW offices, and a nice thick layer of oil !

[boatyboy]

I noticed the same a few weeks ago when we came thru brentford, Lots of rubbish and very shallow with lots of silt between the thames lock and brentford BW offices, and a nice thick layer of oil !

Ah forgot to mention about the oil,i saw and smelt that.Funny thing is though there is a small floating BW craft rusting away here in the basin at Brentford that looks like its built for scooping up rubbish in the cut.Oh i forgot.....BW ain't got no money.Yes they efin well have,coz they got mine!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jenlyn]

Ah forgot to mention about the oil,i saw and smelt that.Funny thing is though there is a small floating BW craft rusting away here in the basin at Brentford that looks like its built for scooping up rubbish in the cut.Oh i forgot.....BW ain't got no money.Yes they efin well have,coz they got mine!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

you have coconut ally to go through yet

[boatyboy]

you have coconut ally to go through yet

Oh not good eh?? Not sure where that is.Been along here twice before but never seen it this bad

[Dr Bradley]

You are making me jealous that I missed it. I will try again in 2 years.

[blackrose]

It can be very bad above Osterley lock and going through Southall can be truly awful. Some rubbish in the basin at Brentford is to be expected I guess as it's at the end of the River Brent which brings all the crap down, but what they didn't think about when they built the marina was that all those pilings (and boats) would exacerbate sedimentation. Some of those boats in the marina are sitting on the bottom even though they dredged the marina a few years ago, and that black mud on the bottom is methanogenic so it bubbles and stinks. What with that and the construction work on the other side I'm glad I got out of the place. My new mooring on the Thames is paradise by comparison, although I've yet to see this stretch in flood conditions!

Edited October 20, 2010 by blackrose

[blackrose]

Oh not good eh?? Not sure where that is.Been along here twice before but never seen it this bad

Tip for you: if you come across a load of rubbish in the water take your engine out of gear and use the forward momentum of the boat to take you through. If you need some steering (or propulsion), put the engine in forward momuntarily and then put it back into neutral as soon as you can.

 

You can use this technique to get your boat through quite extensive stretches of rubbish and although you're bound to get some rubbish around your prop, it will decrease your chances of a badly fouled prop.

Edited October 20, 2010 by blackrose

[CapnEd]

What is it with coconut alley and all those coconuts? They wee there last year. Where do they come from?

 

Perhaps "were" would be a better word than "wee"

[Speedwheel]

What is it with coconut alley and all those coconuts? They wee there last year. Where do they come from?

 

Perhaps "were" would be a better word than "wee"

 

If it is the same reason a Birmingham it will be people using the GU as a substitute for the Ganges to make religious offerings. Personally I think they should be charged with littering or fly tipping but someone will no doubt soon be along to tell me how racist and intolerant I am.

[alan_fincher]

I can't exactly see the coconuts as the same hazard as much of the crap south of Bulls Bridge.

 

They are at least a "natural product", and don't seem to get anywhere near my prop.

 

From my perception, although there have been posts on here about seeing local householders putting large amounts of bagged rubbish in the cut in this area, very much of it is in fact "industrial" not "household". A lot of what is not "industrial" I'd say comes from people who eat and drink alongside the cut. Take away bags, plastic food boxes, beer and cider cans.......

 

What stopped us totally there was clearly an expensive item from a local hospital, not from a household.

[Speedwheel]

I can't exactly see the coconuts as the same hazard as much of the crap south of Bulls Bridge.

 

They are at least a "natural product", and don't seem to get anywhere near my prop.

 

That is true. At least they do eventually rot down - (the coconut part anyway, they are often accompanied by plastic floaty things and plastic flowers). They do clunk quite nicely around the prop but more annoying is when they get stuck behind lock gates or in the bywash.

Edited October 20, 2010 by Speedwheel

[blackrose]

If it is the same reason a Birmingham it will be people using the GU as a substitute for the Ganges to make religious offerings. Personally I think they should be charged with littering or fly tipping but someone will no doubt soon be along to tell me how racist and intolerant I am.

You're so racist and intolerant! If Asians want to chuck coconuts in the water (or entire plastic bags full of religious offerings), then it's their human right! (And who's to say the full black plastic bags floating in the canal aren't religious offerings too?) Similarly if Eastern Europeans want to leave blue plastic bags, bottles and cans strewn all over the towpath we should try to understand it's part of their culture!

Edited October 20, 2010 by blackrose

[Naughty Cal]

You're so racist and intolerant! If Asians want to chuck coconuts in the water (or entire plastic bags full of religious offerings), then it's their human right! (And who's to say the full black plastic bags floating in the canal aren't religious offerings too?) Similarly if Eastern Europeans want to leave blue plastic bags, bottles and cans strewn all over the towpath we should try to understand it's part of their culture!

 

Not fogetting the white people who chuck in their fridge freezers, sofas and old TV's of course

[Speedwheel]

You're so racist and intolerant!

 

But I am fair with my intolerance - I hate everybody equally.

[Dekazer]

Ach, once you get past the locks it's not so bad. In fact the canal seems pretty clean at the moment, I think. It's all relative of course. Also, the litter is fairly bad in many urban canals, in my experience. More people plus 'broken windows' theory = more litter. And at least you can get a very decent curry round here

[Daftmare]

I can't exactly see the coconuts as the same hazard as much of the crap south of Bulls Bridge.

 

They are at least a "natural product", and don't seem to get anywhere near my prop.

 

From my perception, although there have been posts on here about seeing local householders putting large amounts of bagged rubbish in the cut in this area, very much of it is in fact "industrial" not "household". A lot of what is not "industrial" I'd say comes from people who eat and drink alongside the cut. Take away bags, plastic food boxes, beer and cider cans.......

 

What stopped us totally there was clearly an expensive item from a local hospital, not from a household.

 

 

We were stopped totally by a Royal Mail post bag on the way to Little V in August. Took a good 20 mins to cut it away from the prop - they are made of strong stuff! We couldn't pull over to the bank as it was shallow along that stretch by the Royal Mail sorting office or whatever it is......, so just hung there in the middle - luckily no other boat came past us.

[Guest wanted]

Ach, once you get past the locks it's not so bad. In fact the canal seems pretty clean at the moment, I think. It's all relative of course. Also, the litter is fairly bad in many urban canals, in my experience. More people plus 'broken windows' theory = more litter. And at least you can get a very decent curry round here

 

The rubbish in Brentford is bad at the moment but it goes in cycles, of coarse a fast moving river is great at cleaning it's self, but I imagine there is a fair heap of crap floating about somwhere that has made it's way along the Thames.

[boatyboy]

Aha.Re the coconuts.I was told today that the coconuts were thrown in by the bag full as an experiment a few years back to see if they would produce shoots.Coconuts need to be in water for a long time before they germinate.(i'm only repeating what i was told here remember!!)

And some have been found with green shoots coming out of the shell.We've seen about a hundred today,none with growing shoots though.I think someone was winding me up don't you

[jenlyn]

Aha.Re the coconuts.I was told today that the coconuts were thrown in by the bag full as an experiment a few years back to see if they would produce shoots.Coconuts need to be in water for a long time before they germinate.(i'm only repeating what i was told here remember!!)

And some have been found with green shoots coming out of the shell.We've seen about a hundred today,none with growing shoots though.I think someone was winding me up don't you

 

i think someone was being polite, lol

[blackrose]

Not fogetting the white people who chuck in their fridge freezers, sofas and old TV's of course

 

People of all skin pigmentations chuck those items in.

[jeannette smith harrison]

Ach, once you get past the locks it's not so bad. In fact the canal seems pretty clean at the moment, I think. It's all relative of course. Also, the litter is fairly bad in many urban canals, in my experience. More people plus 'broken windows' theory = more litter. And at least you can get a very decent curry round here

Have you tried Lahores in Featherstone rd ? you can take your own drink & they will supply glasses ect at no extra cost.

jeannette

[WJM]

I regularly travel the Brentford - Bulls Bridge section. The bottom few miles of the GU is not a canal, it is the River Brent. When it rains, the flow drags masses of rubbish from all over north London down through the natural river onto the navigation where it then gets trapped by the navigation structures. The biggest catch point is at Osterly Lock where the weir has a massive modern 'elf'n'safety barrier. The rubbish has almost no chance of moving past this point. In fairness to BW, they are very active in regularly clearing this area. In fact there was a BW team there on Tuesday working away clearing the rubbish.

 

 

On a separate note, a very Banksy-esque piece has appeared on the tail of Osterly Lock. The BW workmen that I met on Tuesday were about to start painting over it. I suggested they should leave it as it was a work of art. Not sure if the took my advice though!

Edited October 22, 2010 by WJM