Sun 22nd March
Aylesbury - Wilstone
We packed a few more things to make the boat ready,
including taking down the aerial cable, and putting the hood down, and emptying
cassettes.
We made a final visit to “our” church, where we were asked
to share what our plans were, and what Canal Ministries was all about. Some of the leaders prayed with us and we
received a warm farewell, with a hope to return in November. We have made some
good friends there.
Broughton worship team
We walked back to the boat via the Co-op for some last
minute necessities. We packed away our
electrical cable, made ready the helmsman’s box with Nicholson Guide,
binoculars, logbook, phone, etc. We
had to move Ajax, which was moored alongside us. Tim came to move the flat, a floating steel
pontoon barge, which was blocking us in.
Annie and some friends came to lift the lift bridge for us, and we were
away at 1.25pm.
Leaving our winter
home in Aylesbury
The first lock was full of decaying reeds, which made the
gates difficult to open. At the second
lock the water was overflowing both the top and bottom gates. On the Aylesbury Arm, the bottom lock gates
don’t have a plank sticking out to walk on. Instead you walk on top of the
gates to cross. This means that when
one of the gates is open, the gap is too wide to step from one gate to the
other, so you have to walk round the lock.
Through the reeds
Plenty of water in
the canal
Reflections
We met a family at another lock, and we gave out the first
“How Do Locks Work?” leaflet of the season.
We moored for the night on visitor mooring rings at
Wilstone, as we had planned.
Moored at Wilstone
Wilstone footbridge
We had a good wildlife day. First James spotted a large
amount of frogspawn among the reeds at the side of the canal. Then we heard and then saw a skylark. Two kingfishers flew overhead. Then in the evening at Wilstone, James was
shining his torch along a badger path we had seen earlier, and saw two large
yellow eyes in the distance.
We visited the Half Moon pub, which is delightful, and had
some Addlestone’s cider. They don’t
serve food on Sunday or Monday evenings, so we ate on board.
James set up his new wildlife camera, with a view of the
towpath, to see what turns up.
6 locks, 4 miles, I lift bridge
Mon 23rd March
Wilstone - Marsworth
James had a bit of a disturbed night, getting up at 1am to
look for Hugo, as he thought he had heard some fighting. Hugo was nowhere to be found, but the stars
were beautiful and there was no traffic noise.
Hugo appeared at 3am as though nothing had happened. He was
probably right. He must have been quite a distance away.
The wildlife camera showed one or two people walking,
including James on his Hugo hunt, but no animals.
We re-set the camera to time-lapse mode, and placed it on
top of the boat as we set off through the locks.
Many of the locks had notices saying: “Please leave the lock
empty”. After six single locks, the
final two are a staircase pair.
The staircase locks
at Marsworth
We moored opposite Marsworth junction, with the intention of
visiting the Red Lion in the evening.
We looked at the pictures and discovered that we had taken a
series of 10-second videos instead of one continuous video with a photo every
two seconds, which had been the intention.
After a further test, we had a series of photos every two seconds. What
we want is the photos all joined up to make a video. Still working on that one.
Three boats went past in the afternoon.
Today’s wildlife highlights: a flock of goldfinches and a
grey wagtail.
As we were leaving to go to the Red Lion, we realised that
we hadn’t fed Hugo. James went back inside to feed him, while Hazel said she
would walk on slowly. After locking up
the boat for second time, James set off in pursuit. Hazel was nowhere to be seen. The towpath crossed over a bridge,
and there was a good view from the top. No Hazel. Further along the towpath there was another bridge back over the
canal, and the pub was up the road a short distance. Inside – no Hazel.
Phone call to Hazel, and we both say at the same time “Where
are you?”. “I am at the Red Lion”. “Oh, I am at the Angler’s Retreat”. So Hazel had gone to the wrong pub, in the
opposite direction. However, the Red
Lion was not serving food, so it was James who made the double journey to join
Hazel at the Angler’s Retreat. We both
enjoyed an excellent pizza (Monday nights only), whilst overlooked by an
African Grey parrot called Rosie.
Rosie
When we were back on board we heard a knock on the
boat. Sarah from a boat called Pug
came to say she had closed our back door to stop her cat going inside our boat.
She also suggested keeping the cats apart to avoid a fight, as she couldn’t
afford the vets bills! We said we would keep Hugo in after 11pm. He had been
out all afternoon anyway.
8 locks, 1 mile.
Tue 24th March
Marsworth - Slapton
We decided to keep Hugo in, and we moved the boat across to
the facilities where we emptied cassettes and filled the water tank. The rest
of the site has been sold to developers and there are homes being built where
the old British Waterways depot used to be.
We moved on to the next bridge to get rid of rubbish in the
bin provided. James kept the boat steady while Hazel went ashore – there are no
rings or bollards here. A robin came to keep him company.
A wild visitor
It was a glorious spring day and there were lots of flowers
everywhere. The first two locks at Marsworth were empty, so we had to fill them
first. There was a large buzzard
circling overhead, being mobbed by rooks.
At the swing bridge at Pitstone we had a good view of a
mink, who was stalking some ducks. We know there are quite a number around, but
we seldom see them, so it was thrill to spot this one, even though we have
mixed feelings about them. They are the main reason why water voles are in
decline.
Swing bridge (mink at
bottom right)
Violets at Seabrook
Locks
We moved on through the three Seabrook Locks, where there
were violets in profusion. Again the locks were all against us. We met a boat coming the other way, and the
first Ivinghoe lock was in our favour.
The second one was not. There was a boat just coming in from the other
direction. It turned out that he was
going to Aylesbury. He also told us that there was a boat in front of us, which
explained why the locks were all against us.
Between Horton and Slapton locks we looked for the Whipsnade
lion carved in chalk on the side of the hill.
We found it, but it was very indistinct. It probably has grass or weeds
growing where it is usually white.
Leaving Slapton Lock, there was a boat waiting to come up,
so finally we could leave a lock with the gates open. We moored soon after, and enjoyed a lovely sunny evening.
9 locks, 4 miles, 1 swing bridge.
Wed 25th March
Much colder
We did not have so much to do today. The first lock, Church Lock was almost full,
so we just had to top it up. A few
years ago James went to visit the church adjacent to this lock, to find out the
service times, only to find that it was now a private house, complete with
gravestones in the garden.
The next lock was Grove Lock, and a boat had just left,
leaving the gates open for us. As we approached Leighton Buzzard we spotted two
muntjac deer in a meadow.
We moored up just South of the road bridge, and had lunch in
the Swan, a Wetherspoons pub. Sadly they had no guest ciders.
We pottered round some shops, and bought a small pair of
bellows before visiting Aldi and Tesco for a few bits.
We saw a beautiful mandarin duck on the way back to the
boat.
Mandarin Duck
In the evening we went out again, this time to the Black
Lion, where we discovered they had a range of still ciders available. They had
an arrangement where we could order six thirds of a pint. The verdict: Gwatkin Golden Valley Scrumpy
from Herefordshire was excellent.
Cider choices
The cider wasn’t the reason we were there: It was the last
Wednesday of the month, which means there was an acoustic session taking
place. We don’t often co-incide with a
monthly event like this so we were pleased to be there.
We were in the bar area, near the entrance door, and there
was a lot of background chatter which made it difficult to project the words of
songs. However, we ended up singing
seven songs, and it was good fun. Four separate ladies with guitars, three
separate guys with guitars, one fiddle player, and us.
2 locks, 3 miles
Thu 26th March
The forecast rain arrived in the small hours and continued
off and on until lunchtime. We were
able to catch up with a few emails and other admin chores. Our voices were somewhat strained after last
night’s singing.
We had a quick lunch on board and Hazel had a last minute
visit to Tesco while James filled the water tank and emptied a cassette.
Leighton Lock was against us and all was quiet on the
waterway. We negotiated the tortuous
route along the Ouzel valley, with high winds making progress slower than
usual. We saw a green woodpecker at one
point.
Half a mile from the three locks at Soulbury we met a boat
going the other way, and they shouted “We’ve left the locks in your
favour!” They had, but leakage from the
bottom gates meant that they were only three quarter full, so they had to be
topped up again. The three locks took
us just on 30 minutes – not bad. The
only other boat we saw moving all day was one which came into view at the
bottom of the locks, turned round and went out of sight again.
The usual moorings at Stoke Hammond were fairly full with
several dogs in evidence, so we moored a little further along, just past the
site of the swing bridge. By then there was glorious sunshine, but still a high
wind.
Unfortunately there was no phone signal, so we couldn’t make
our promised call to Julie, Hazel’s Dad’s neighbour in Southampton.
4 locks, 4 miles
Fri 27th March
The day didn’t start very well. James got our of bed and almost fell over because the boat was
tilting over at an angle. It seems that
the water level had dropped in the night.
Our bed is across the boat, so it was our feet that had been lowered. If
our bed had been along the length of the boat one of us might have rolled out.
In addition to that, our fire had gone out, so before doing
anything about the sloping boat, he had to get rid of the ash that had choked
the fire, relay the coals and start it again. It was a chilly morning so this
was a priority.
James unhitched the mooring lines and tried to push the boat
out into deeper water. The bows went out, but the stern was stuck fast. A man with a dog went past and said the
water levels often drop here.
Look no ropes
James walked to the next lock, and the pump was working,
bringing water up from the pound below, gradually raising the water levels once
more. He walked back to the boat and put it in reverse with a bit of welly, and
thankfully the stern moved slowly out into deeper water.
Stoke Hammond Lock
with back pumping
We travelled down to the lock where we tied up and had
breakfast while we carefully filled the lock trying not to lower the pound
again too quickly. While we there, two
CRT maintenance men arrived, and they were wielding one of those tools like a
bent garden fork to clear some weed from the sluices. They said it was called a
drag, although further north they call it a keb. They also said that the last boat coming up the lock had left the
top gates open, and the bottom gates leak, which is why the level had dropped.
A drag rake or keb
After this we had a lovely morning, with pleasant sunshine.
We saw a red kite and heard a woodpecker as we made our way into Milton Keynes.
Fenny Stratford Lock was against us, so we had to fill
it. It is not very deep – about 6
inches. We also had to swing the swing
bridge open, and swing it shut again afterwards. As the road only goes to two buildings on the East side of the
canal, why can we not just leave the bridge open for the many boats that pass
this way each day, particularly in the summer? There are probably not more than
four car journeys across each day.
Fenny Stratford Lock
There were no more locks and we had an easy cruise, mooring
up at Campbell Park, within sight of Gulliver’s Land theme park.
We caught a bus into the centre, and had a further walk to
Maplins to exchange a faulty part for our TV aerial. Very impressed with the
can do attitude.
We bought an extra pillow in Range for Hazel. We noticed
that everything ended in 99p; even items valued at several hundred pounds were
e.g. £499.99 instead of £500. They must think their customers are stupid idiots
if they think a penny will make a difference.
The same applies to petrol prices at the pumps, which all end in .9 of a
pence. If I were Prime Minister I would
introduce a law to make pricing sensible.
Bah! Humbug! A Victor Meldrew
moment.
We walked a long way in the shopping centre and had a meal
at Pizza Express (a work of art) before taking the bus back to Campbell Park.
The Pizza Express
pizza
2 locks, 7 miles, 1 swing bridge.
Sat 28th March
We set off early this morning as there was rain forecast
later and we wanted to be in Wolverton for church the next morning.
We had no locks to deal with, and the only brief stop was at
Giffard Park to dispose of a bag of rubbish.
We moored shortly after the Grafton Street Aqueduct. A few minutes later the rain started. So we
timed it well.
Tomorrow there is rain forecast for the whole day, so we are
unlikely to move the boat. We plan to
walk to King’s Church to see how they are getting on with their new location in
the centre of the community.
0 locks, 5 miles
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