Cosgrove to Whilton Marina

Sat 25^th Jun   Cosgrove to Stoke Bruerne

It was breezy this morning.  After a light breakfast (our appetites are low) we set off gently and made our way out of the interesting village of Cosgrove. There are old barns and warehouses converted into apartments, old thatched cottages, the Barley Mow pub, a medieval church, and the tunnel under the canal for horses. Also, the ornate sandstone Solomon's Bridge.

Cosgrove

Barley Mow

Solomon's Bridge

We had a pleasant but uneventful cruise past the Navigation Inn at Thrupp Wharf, through Yardley Gobion, and skirting round historic Grafton Regis, where Elizabeth Woodville married Edward IV, and where their grandson Henry VIII had a palace.

Navigation Inn at Thrupp Wharf

Luxurious plants

Grafton Regis

We passed a pair of boats belonging to a new travelling theatre group, Bonnet and Belt

Theatre company boats

We arrived at the facilities moorings at the bottom of Stoke Bruerne Locks, and filled our water tank, disposed of rubbish, and emptied two cassettes.

Stoke Bruerne facilities

We thought Kew would be about an hour behind us, but we discovered that some of them had been swimming in the Great Ouse below the aqueduct at Cosgrove.

We waited for two hours for a boat to share the locks with, and eventually shared with Lady Emily, owned by a pleasant, retired couple called Dave and Jenny.

Stoke Bruerne bottom lock

At lock 18, we waited for two boats to come down, as they were in lock 16, and lock 17 was in their favour. When we left lock 16, another boat was waiting for us.

Crossing over

Precision boating

There were lots of gongoozlers, and we had some help pushing gates. As we cleared the top lock, we spotted GB-Casi, a widebeam belonging to old friends of ours Brenda and Graham from Byfleet Boat Club. It was good to spend a little time with them catching up, socially distanced alongside the path.

Top lock gongoozlers

Moored in Stoke Bruerne with GB Casi

We heard that Kew had stopped for the night at the bottom of the locks.

7 locks, 6 miles. Dep 0940, arr Facs 1140. Dep 1425, arr 1620

Sun 26^th Jun  Stoke Bruerne to Bugbrooke

Kew came past at 8.30am, heading for Blisworth, for a church service. David, Graham, and Richard Alford on deck. Two ladies inside, we think. They must have left about 6.30am. The service at Stoke Bruerne is only on the second Sunday of the month, so nothing today.

Kew going past

We went for breakfast at the Boat Inn, which was very good, and deservedly popular. We met Mike the trip boat operator for Charlie, who was chatting with Andy, who skippers Indian Chief.

While we were there, lots of Japanese people came in. We spotted the coach driver, who said that they have chartered Indian Chief to go through the tunnel and back. Half of them are going northbound, then he is taking the rest by coach to Blisworth where the two parties will swap round.

The Japanese group

Back outside, we saw that Brenda and Graham had left. They had not been around when we walked past their boat earlier. They must by now be halfway down the locks.

We called on Kathryn for a brief chat. She is about to have a cataract operation. We discovered that the museum’s historic boat Sculptor is in Northwich being painted. A long way to go for a paint job.

We were ready to go, so we put the hood down and set off for the tunnel. As we approached the mouth of tunnel, a boat emerged. James asked, “Is there a boat behind you?” “Yes” they replied. “How far behind you?” “Well, they’re heading in this direction!” Not such a helpful conversation. They were actually about five minutes behind.

The boat emerging from the tunnel

Into Blisworth Tunnel

Despite very dry weather, it was still wet in the tunnel. It took 30 minutes from portal to portal. It was surprisingly busy, and we met five boats altogether, including Indian Chief, full of Japanese tourists.

Leaving the tunnel

Wet roof

The warehouse at Blisworth

Blisworth Tunnel Boats

Unexpected vans at Blisworth

We found Kew moored shortly after Blisworth, with just Graham on board. The rest had gone to Blisworth Baptist Church.

Kew moored at Blisworth

We went past Gayton Junction, where the Northampton branch heads off down 17 locks to the Nene.

Old railway bridge and moored boats

Gayton Junction

Gayton Junction

We travelled on to our intended mooring just after Heyford Fields Marina, a place we call Bugbrooke Badgers, because there is a badger sett that spills over the towpath.

Moored at Bugbrooke Badgers

While we were there, Ray and Sharon (Vanguard) came past heading south on a boat called Grace that they were moving for someone else. Later Kew came up from behind and went past.

Ray and Sharon

Kew

Kew

Red Kites

James went and sat by the badger sett for two hours listening to the birds singing. Sadly, no badgers in sight.

The view from James’ chair

0 locks, 7 miles, 1 tunnel.  Dep 1140, arr 1420

Mon 27^th Jun  Bugbrooke to Whilton Marina

When James got up this morning, it was just starting to rain. He quickly got the hood up, just before a heavy shower. It had been forecast dry.

We waited until there was a good sized gap in the clouds before setting off for about an hour to Weedon. We had hoped to moor by the church, but the moorings were full. We carried on past Grand Union Narrowboats, and under the bridge, and found some rings, just as it started to rain again.

We had a good doze, despite men shouting and machines working on a building site opposite. Later we went to visit Tesco and stocked up on a few essentials.

New buildings opposite our mooring.

We moved on further, and just under the new Weedon bypass bridge, we met a working pair, skippered by Janul, who plays guitar and sings.

The new Weedon bypass bridge

Pair on a bend

There were a lot of working boats around, returning from the Braunston Festival.

This section is particularly noisy, with fast trains running past on the left, and the M1 coming very close on the right.

We spotted two unusual vessels: Bonsano, built in 1935 in Paignton, and a boat made from a steel container.

Bonsano

Container ship

We found a space opposite Whilton Marina, on the mooring bollards just before the Buckby Locks, which we hope to tackle in the morning.

Moored opposite Whilton Marina

0 locks, 6 miles. Dep 1115, arr 1240 Weedon. Dep 1615, arr 1720 Whilton Marina.

Next: hoping to share with another boat going up the Buckby locks.

Water Eaton to Cosgrove

Mon 20th Jun  Water Eaton

Sue returned from hospital early and was back on Ten Thousand Reasons. Many people including us, waiting to see who might need help, so we didn’t return our car today.

Graham and Sandra are unwell on Micah.  Graham Pope is by himself on Kew. David has left to look after Mary back home.  We are trying to recover on Gabriel. Paul and Sue are unwell on Ten Thousand Reasons. Andy and Sue (Springwater) kindly did a shopping trip and came back with paracetamol and tissues for us. Steve and Fiona are OK on Lutra Lutra, and waiting to see if they can help as well.

James went for a short walk down by the river this evening. First, he spotted a kingfisher, with a fish in its beak, holding it by the tail. It flew down out of sight, but it was probably feeding young, otherwise it would have swallowed it head first. It didn't wait for a photo.

Then he saw a barn owl flying over meadows, and resting on a post. While he was watching that, a little egret flew over. On the way back to the boat he saw a treecreeper which kept disappearing round the other side of the tree before he could get a photo. A mistle thrush appeared, the first we have seen for a long time.

And the evening sun on the wild flowers was lovely.

Barn Owl

Little Egret

Mistle Thrush

Sunlight on the meadow

No boating on Gabriel today.

Tue 21^st Jun  Water Eaton

A very warm sunny day

Today we were struggling a bit. James managed to do some shopping while we still have a car. He found making choices in the shops was difficult. Hazel’s legs are very swollen. We both have irritating coughs, and we are dosing ourselves up with paracetamol.

We are being asked to jump through some silly hoops by Oliver’s buyer’s mortgage company. They asked us to get a structural survey, which we have done, and sent to them. Now they won’t even read it, because it is in our name. They now say they want it in the name of the buyer. STUPID!!  It is the same report whatever name is on it. We paid for it, so it is our report. If they wanted it in the buyers name, they should have arranged it themselves.  Bah Humbug! We have spoken to the surveyors, and they think it is a strange request which needs discussion at a higher level. They haven’t yet come back to us.

We haven’t yet taken the car back as we may need it for doctors etc.

Hazel and I managed a short walk by the river, and we saw some swifts. We have had a swan family and a duck family asking for food. Seven youngsters and an adult in each case.

No boating today.

Wed 22^nd Jun  Water Eaton

Ten Thousand Reasons and Lutra Lutra left early, before we emerged.

Hazel’s legs were back to normal, after sleeping in the bed instead of sitting up. We both had showers today, and then we drove into Aylesbury via a long way round, as there was a road closure due to an accident.

We bought a few things in Waitrose, picked up a prescription for Hazel, returned a borrowed mic stand, and visited our apartment. We left our car there, with the battery disconnected.

Roger and Jo collected us from there after their duty at More+, and took us back to Water Eaton with our shopping, again via a tortuous country route.

In the evening Roger cooked some Asian spicy noodles, which were lovely. Hazel made a fruit salad.  Just four boats remaining- Kew, Gabriel, Micah and Spirit.

We joined the Canal Ministries Zoom meeting, with Jo’s iPad stuck magnetically to the side of their boat.  Paul and Sue had reached Grafton Regis – a long day.

No boating today.

Thu 23^rd Jun  Water Eaton to Giffard Park

It was our turn to depart, which we did at 8.30am, leaving just three boats at the mission site.

Micah

Spirit

Kew

The first stop was the facilities at the locks, where we emptied three cassettes. We never did get our fourth one fixed. It was pleasing to not that the bins had been emptied, and all the bulky items had been taken away.

Emptied bins

Fenny Stratford Lock and Swing Bridge

After the lock we saw the guy from WOL, who had been at the folk night. He said it was a great evening, but he had also been ill since.  We spotted Jubilee moored across from him. John and Jan were away on family business.

We started on the long pound around MK, which was fairly slow due to the large number of moored boats. At one point we met Capital, with Dave at the helm. He goes to the music session at Wing.

As we were going under a bridge, James spotted a black and yellow striped cinnabar caterpillar on a solitary ragwort plant. We usually seem to have one sighting each year.

A beautiful tree. Anyone know what species?

We were tempted to stop at Campbell Park, as there was a space available, and it started to rain slightly, but we decided to do a little bit more. When we saw some new rings at Giffard Park, we thought that was too tempting, so we stopped. James went to investigate the pub, which looked closed down from the Canal – no name board, and one gate padlocked. However, when he got there, it was open. May be later.

Anonymous pub

He checked out the shops as well. The One Stop is now a Tesco Express, and the Rohan shop has closed. The Chinese takeaway is now a café which serves breakfast. Good news. There is also the Cairo Lounge, where you can go and smoke a hubbly bubbly. We were surprised that is legal.

Meanwhile we had a reply from the surveyors, who want to charge £150 to change the name of the surveyors report. So, the mortgage company can either pay for that, or they can read the one we have given them.

It rained a bit harder, so we put the hood up. We went for a meal in the pub later.

Raining

Moored at Giffard Park

1 lock, 7 miles, 1 swing bridge.

Fri 24^th Jun  Giffard Park to Cosgrove

Feeling delicate this morning, so we didn’t go for breakfast in the pub or the café. We took our time, and finally set off at 11am.

Beverley and Ascot

Just a few boat lengths along, we came across Shirley and Colin on Brace Yourself. It was good to see them again.

Shirley

Brace Yourself

No other encounters today, just the usual Milton Keynes landmarks. We managed to pass through Wolverton without stopping.

Old buildings at Linford

Grafton Street Aqueduct

The Wolverton mural

Wolverton visitor moorings

Railway Bridges

Over the Cosgrove aqueduct across the Great Ouse. Cosgrove Lock was kindly opened for us by a boat that was coming down.

Cosgrove Aqueduct

Long Way Down

View from the aqueduct

Leaving Cosgrove Lock

Moored in Cosgrove

Some new ducklings

Moorhen

We have heard that Kew is at Giffard Park this evening. We could possibly share the locks at Stoke Bruerne tomorrow.

5 miles, 1 lock. Dep 1100, arr 1310.

Next: On to Stoke Bruerne, and north via Weedon, heading for the Leicester Arm.