Canal Walk: The Regents Canal: Camden to Little Venice

This weekend I was down in London to see some friends and while there finish off the Regents Canal. I got up early Sunday morning and had a full English breakfast to fuel my trek. From Euston Station it is fairly simple to get to the canal at Camden Lock. I walked up Eversholt Street, along side the station, which turns into Camden High Street. The weather was perfect, it wasn't yet nine am but it was warm enough to just wear a t-shirt.
I had a quick look around the old canal wharf buildings while the market workers were setting up their stalls. The canal market looks almost ready to reopen following its destruction by fire. After negotiating a passage through a throng of German school children by the lock I crossed the simple but pretty metal bridge which takes the towpath from the lock side across the canal to the towpath on the far side beyond the arm which serves the wharf buildings and market. There is now a doorway from the market to the towpath to save you walking all the way around.
There is an archway taking the towpath over another arm, once known as the Dead Dog Hole. The stonework is scored by rope marks.
The canal passes under road and rail, the railway to Euston Station crosses the canal after the Pirate Castle. It was quiet on the canal, no barges on the move and just a few dog walkers and cyclists. Soon after Camden the canal reaches Regents Park and London Zoo. On one side is the famous Aviary and on the other side were a pack of Painted African Hunting Dogs. They were running along the fence of their compound at the edge of the canal. It was odd to see something from a Safari on the side of an English canal. The dogs and birds are all you can see of the zoo from the towpath.
As the canal circles the Regents Park it passes some huge houses in the Greek and Roman classical style. Some of them do look like they would suit a Premiership footballer in Cheshire.
The canal passes under some more railway bridges. One had some poor unfortunate living underneath it.
At Maida Hill there are some moorings, almost all narrow boats, before the canal enters a tunnel. There is no towpath so walkers have to go over the top. It seems logical to go up the steps right next to the tunnel's portal but the gate at the top was locked so I came back down and walked back to the next bridge. There you can leave the towpath and go up to the top and follow the canal cutting looking down to where you have just been. A boat was just entering the tunnel as I passed by the locked gate that had stopped me minutes before. Its fairly easy to follow the route of the tunnel, its a straight tunnel and the road above is also straight. You pass Crockers Folly, a pub said to have been built in anticipation of a railway terminus being built opposite it. Unfortunatley the station was built further away and legend has it the landlord jumped to his death from the window of his large "gin palace".
There is a cafe overhanging the other entrance of the tunnel. You cannot rejoin the towpath straight away due to private moorings. A short distance along Bloomfield Road there is a gap in the railings and you can get back to the waters edge just in time to pass under bridge number 1 of the Regents Canal. Next to the bridge is the former toll office.
Through the bridge the canal opens up into the triangular basin known as Brownings Pool. Named after the poet Robert Browning (1812-1889) who lived nearby. From the Regents Canal, on the left is Paddington Basin and Paddington Station; ahead is the Grand Union Canal and the rest of the countries canal network. There are public toilets in gardens by Brownings Pool.
You can follow the canal along to Paddington Basin, once a busy inland port. Leave the canal and you are at Paddington Station. A short walk away is Hyde Park.

Photos from the walk and the other walks on the Regents Canal can be found here:
http://www.towpathtreks.co.uk/Other/regents_canal.html

Canal Walk: Ellesmere Port to Chester ~9 miles

Today's plan was for me and Troy to be dropped off at Ellesmere Port at the Boat Museum and then walk to Chester to be picked up again.

Ellesmere Port was a transhipment centre, here the canal network meets the Manchester Ship Canal and the River Mersey. Unfortunately the milepost at the museum is just inside the fence so Troy couldn't pose for a photo in front of it. As usual my camera batteries were flat so I changed them as Troy wondered why he had been abandoned on a towpath. With the camera ready we set off.

Not far from the museum we came to the first of the typical brick bridges. They are nicely proportioned humpback bridges built of red brick. Most show signs of having once been painted white/grey.

Its been a while since I last sailed this stretch of canal and I don't really remember it at all. The canal passes by the huge Stanlow oil refinery and there are lots of ugly concrete bridges and pipes crossing the canal.

There have been attempts to brighten up this bit of canal. There are large metal waymarkers, and some bits of sculpture. The daffodils and other yellow flowers did their best to brighten up a rather grim bit of canal.

There are some views which would be perfect rural scenes but they all have motorways, pylons or factories superimposed upon them. There wasn't much in the way of wildlife about, some mallards, swans, and I heard a woodpecker. There were quite a few bumble bees about though.

The towpath was quite busy, there were as many people on bikes as there were walkers. The towpath along the whole distance is tarmac-ed so idea for cyclists.

Troy checks out the map

We stopped at Croughton bridge number 135 to share a sausage roll and a drink of water. After bit of a breather we set off again and were soon passing by Chester Zoo. You cant see or smell the zoo from the towpath but it is only about half a mile from bridge 134. Caughall Bridge (134) is a nice iron arched bridge.

Military Training: Note the soldiers in camouflage

One of the highlights was the large railway viaduct crossing the canal as bridge 131A. Built in 1839 it was once the Great Western Railways route from Paddington to Birkenhead Woodside.
As we neared Chester housing estates appeared on both sides of the canal. Soon we were at Tower Wharf with its dry dock and wharf buildings. We had another sit down and another sausage roll.

We followed the Dee Branch down to the river lock. It was good to see the lock which appears in the old photos on my site: http://www.towpathtreks.co.uk/aboutphotodisplay.asp?ino=420 The basin has been massively redeveloped since the photo was taken in the 1960s.

Back on the main line we headed up past the intriguing hook, and up the flight of locks. The sandstone cutting below Chester's city walls is one of the best canal stretches we have.

With some time to kill we headed up to the city walls and walked round to the river. After a sit by the river we got back on the walls and walked around to the Tower Wharf to get our ride back home.