Contrasts

Day Total: 15.25 miles, 26 locks (162 ft 5 in downhill), 9 hrs  47 min
Overall Total: 187.75 miles, 159 locks
Distance to London mooring: 18.5 miles, 1 locks

We’ve made it!!  Not to Little Venice – we aren’t due there until Friday.  We’ve made it to the bottom of the Grand Union Canal.  26 locks today (crumbs!!) and we are now just one small lock away from the Cowley Peachey Junction, where the Slough Arm heads west, and from where, along the Paddington Arm, we get to Little Venice.  As you can see since leaving Middlewich 17 days ago we have travelled through 159 locks!!!!!!!!!!

Today has been a day of real contrasts.

We’ve travelled through some beautiful countryside, large and most definitely expensive houses, with beautiful greenery, but we’ve also been through urban, industrial landscapes too.

We crossed a major milestone today 9:51am – we crossed under the M25!

The contrast of a quiet canal (only a few other boats moving) with the thousands of vehicles using the M25.

And then the biggest surprise of all – some of the most rural locations we passed today were INSIDE the M25 – less than 7 miles as the cross flies from Central London.  Bizarre!

Locks ranged from a measley 5′ 2″ south of Kings Langley, to the last but one lock – Denham Deep Lock – which at 11′ 1″ is the deepest lock on the Grand Union Canal.  This view is from inside looking back at the uphill gates.

I didn’t get a picture of the bottom gates closing as I was busy steering the boat, but they resembled the gates of Hades!!! A typical broad lock takes 240,000 litres of water to fill it – Denham is almost certainly more than that!

The final contrast was the fact that on this stretch the locks are spread out, so a peaceful cruise of 10-15 minutes would be interrupted by 10-20 minutes worth of hard work on the locks.

My mind today is still full of Holy Week – the huge contrasts between the popularity of Jesus and the plotting of the religious authorities – the contrast amongst the disciples, some thoughtful, some vying for good places in heaven and one contemplating betrayal.

Judas and Peter – both destined to betray Jesus, yet only one of them would survive the week.

And what are our contrasts?  What are the things that stop us and make us think?  What are the things that jar?

The contrast between rich and poor? The contrast between healthy and sick? The contrast between the life we had planned and the life we are living?

Let’s allow these contrasts to stop us and make us think again about our lives and this world.  Let’s let God speak to us through the contrasts.  You can often see an image more clearly when you turn the contrast up!