Marsworth to Leighton Buzzard

Sun 26th May  Marsworth to Aylesbury by car

Side ponds on the locks are no longer used

Moored at Marsworth

We walked down to the car park by the Bluebell Café where Stephanie soon arrived to collect us and take us by car to Aylesbury where we joined others for the Broughton Church service. It was good to catch up with friends, although there were some away as it was half term week.

James Talbot was speaking and leading the worship, and Emma led the meeting. The Kingsbrook group were there as it was the fourth Sunday.

Worship band

We were able to collect some post from the boater’s room – only one item, our GOBA sticker and magazine about the Great Ouse.

Stephanie kindly took us back via Sainsburys for a bottle of milk, as there are no shops at Marsworth. We had a pleasant lunch at the Anglers Retreat. We followed this with a visit to

Bluebells for a drink and a pudding.

There were very few unusual birds on the reservoirs. A few tufted ducks were there, but no pochards or egrets. However, there were lots of swifts screaming overhead.

We had heavy rain in the early afternoon, and this was followed by a very black sky with bright sunshine, making intriguing lighting contrasts.

Heavy rain

water art

Black sky and sunshine

We heard later that we had missed Naomi Barnes who had been moored just below us at the junction last night. She went back down the locks to Aylesbury today.

No boating today

Mon 27^th May   Marsworth to Tiddenfoot Lake, Leighton

We cruised slowly past the moored boats and went down one lock, past the Aylesbury Arm to the sanitary station, where we discovered that there are rubbish bins hidden in a cupboard at the back. In the past we have used the wheelie bins at the next bridge.

Lock 39 by Bluebell Café

New homes near the junction

Then it was on to the two further Marsworth Locks, where a boat was coming up so we waited for them, hoping another boat might catch us up so we could share. None did, so we continued on our own. As it was a holiday Monday there were people out doing things, including a long walk down the Grand Union for some.

Long distance walkers by Marsworth Locks

We passed Pitstone and the swing bridge, and at the Seagrove Locks we started to encounter boats returning from the Commodores Cruise. This meant that the three Seagrove Locks were in our favour.

At Ivinghoe Locks we caught up with a hire boat, and it was good to share locks with them.

Ivinghoe Locks

Many of the locks have a double bridge in this area

Horton Lock

Whipsnade Lion in the distance

Be careful how you say this

Black headed gull

Moored after the bypass bridge near Tiddenfoot.  James went for a walk to find the new shops he had heard about from another boater today. It was an unofficial footpath, which involved climbing over a low fence, under another and across an old footbridge across the River Ouzel.   He returned the same way, as there was no footpath on the main road.

Moored by Tiddenfoot Park

Footbridge

New shopping zone

James then crossed the canal on the modern footbridge and had a walk round Tiddenfoot Lake. Thankfully he had taken a brolly as it rained hard for a short while. There was a pylon catching the sun.

Tiddenfoot Lake

Heavy rain

Pylon

Rainbow

Leaves and water

12 locks, 7 miles, 1 swing bridge.

Tue 28^th May    Tiddenfoot to Leighton Buzzard

We had a very short cruise today. We moored before the bridge in Leighton Buzzard. There were no rings or piling, and the earth was very soft. A boat went past and pulled out our mooring pins  Very soft earth. Blue angle iron mooring pins, so we used our long blue bits of angle iron, which only come out on such occasions.

We went into Leighton Buzzard to visit the market, which was very limited. We caught a bus to Aylesbury to visit the Vodafone shop to change the pin on James’s new phone. We managed to buy a hard cover for it, but the Vodafone shop wanted to see a passport or driving licence before they would do anything. Unfortunately, the driving licence was with the passport, back on the boat. We did manage to obtain a new sim from them, and will have to get the phone number transferred by phoning them.

We returned to Leighton Buzzard and visited Tesco before going back to the boat.

1 mile, 0 locks. Dep 0910, arr 0930.

Next: On to Milton Keynes for Sunday.