Once around the island with Richard.

It's Thursday, so it must be towpath-ranging day.

I put my bike into shape (it needed a bit of oil on the squeaky bits and air in the tubes) and headed down to White Post Lane for 11am. Richard turned up not long after, we hung around until 11.15 but that turned out to be the complement for this ride.

As ever we made ourselves inconvenient, shutting the the tap covers and doors at the sanitary station at Old Ford Lock on the Lee. Given that there was another towpath mugging there last night, shutting this door might be an inconvenience to the nearby moored boaters, but it gives criminals one fewer place to hide too.

Below Old Ford Lock we found a push-pit and a bag of rubbish left for us to discover and report.

Next, the new ramp and bridge at Twelvetrees. Huzzah. Hopefully they'll remove the floating towpath bypass soon, now this is complete.

Then on to Limehouse, just checking that the Elsan and Pump-out there are open for general use by licensed boaters during business hours. The Limehouse Cut needs another signage run. The Share The Space boards are either gone or looking tatty. That's a job for the New Year.

Then on up the Regents to Old Ford Lock 8 (Regents), no volockies today, and up and down the Hertford Union to the upper lock.

Here a boater was letting down water into the pound below, so that he could get his widebeam up through the locks. As we were there to put up the following signage, we had a chat about water and where it comes from (Welsh Harp at the top of the Brent feeder) to get down to here.

We put two signs on the balance beams at the top lock, four signs (one on each balance beam) at the middle lock - since this is the lock that causes the most problems, and our last sign on the bottom lock's top, towpath-side gate.

By 13.15 we were done. As it was a lovely day, Richard rode on up the Lee, but I turned back across QEOP for home.

2 productive hours.