Wendover Arm

We set off early.  A grey, chilly, wet morning.  Wet weather gear on again.  I know 'cause I can hear Susan swearing even before she has stepped onto the towpath....  She does seem to have trouble getting her legs through the trousers and out the other end...

Leaving our overnight mooring

Susan and Mazey prep the locks.  Pete helps out too. The locks are full of leaves.  Lovely views on the way.

Lock full of leaves

I am thirsty, so we stop for a while and wait for a boat to finish filling up with water at the drinking tap.  Pete wanders if his pipe (hose) is long enough.  This is where we meet 'Mad Hatter' with Chris and Ruth on board.  The humans chat for a long time..... about everything!!!!  'Mad Hatter' has a large water tank - much bigger than mine.  I wish I had a bigger tank - then I would not get so thirsty so quickly....  Susan and Pete admire their boat.....  Lots to discuss and while away the time - no rush.  A few of the items discussed were moorings, batteries/inverters, water storage, and, as every boater will admit to, the lovely topic of toilets.  No boater can go by without having discussed this at least once a week.  The type of conversation usually is "Are you pump out or cassette"??  "How long do you go for before having to empty it?"!!!!  When they leave the water point they go backwards to their residential mooring... Great steering by the way!

Mad Hatter reversing - Chris and Ruth

Drinking point

A duck says hello.... Sorry no food today

At one of the locks Mazey tries to help out.  She looks to Susan and says 'come on - give me a hand here'........ I think she wants a biscuit - maybe she is thirsty too.

The whole stretch of Marsworth is picturesque - lots of fisherman and people walking dogs.  It is not far from Tring.

Marsworth Reservoir on the left

After doing 9 locks and 2.5 miles we turn off at Bulbourne Junction onto the Wendover Arm.  We have not been along here before.  At the beginning it is silted and I end up dragging my bottom in the mud.  Not very pleasant.  Susan is a bit scared when we start to tilt over at an acute angle due to the shallow water.  Eventually after 1.5 miles, we manage, at a very slow pace, to get to the end of the arm and turn-around.  We have moored at the end of the arm for tonight.  Lovely views of the countryside.

Mooring - Wendover Arm

Total 9 Locks and 4 miles

Juels Fuels

What a difference a day makes.......  As a thick mist surrounds us, casting an eerie silence across the Chiltern hills, Susan and Pete decide not to move today.

Great excitement when Pete sees Juel's Fuels the working boat coming towards us.  They pull alongside me and fill me up with diesel and Pete buys 6 large bags of coal for the stove.  Juel and Richard have been working this area from Apsley to Braunston since 1972.  Boaters can order what they want by text (diesel, coal, logs, gas bottles, toilet fluid).  If the boat is unattended the couple will still leave the goods on your boat with an invoice.  The invoice can be paid by internet banking.  Welcome to the twenty-first century......

Pete asked Richard if he had ever fallen in.  Richard told us that he had 4 week's ago.....  He slipped off the back of another boater's slippery stern whilst about to fill the boat with diesel.  Once he managed to get back onto his boat sopping wet, using a ladder, the first thing the boater said to him was "My dog gave birth to 7 puppies last week" - not a word about his fall into the canal.  Naught stranger than boaters........

Juel's Fuels

Filling-me up with diesel

Marsworth

A beautiful warm sunny day.  Such a joy to be cruising on this 'spring-like' day....  Pete says "What a lovely way to spend your days.  Beats work"...........  Did not pass one moving boat today...  All quiet.

At Church Lock there are 6 boats all moored in exactly the same place as they were when we went past them in July (below the lock).  This is not a private or BW temporary mooring section - so all moored up illegally....  One of the boats even has a motorbike blocking the towpath....  wonder if the new Canal and River Trust will sort this out....  The old church has now been renovated and has been sold as a family home.

Such stunning views after Church and Slapton locks.  Susan decided that it was a lovely day and as there was quite a distance between locks to put her folding chair in the stern hatch.  Mazey sat on her lap as Susan read her book and chatted to Pete.

Church Lock

Susan noticed that mushrooms were growing on one of the lock gates.......  Susan is not sure if she can eat them!!

Mushrooms

These boats were moored on private land - legally.  Such stunning views over the countryside.

Approaching the final lock of the day.  Only a swing-bridge to do....

Dunstable boat club.  I am moored around the corner from here just prior to Marsworth locks 37/38.  A lovely spot.

Dunstable Boat Club

Total today: 5.5 miles and 7 locks

Milton Keynes to Leighton Buzzard - Grove Lock

A busy few days cruising from Milton Keynes to Leighton Buzzard (Grove Lock).

Sunday, 11 November

Day of rest.  Pete taking advantage of the beautiful sunny day to paint the front of me.  Yippee.... Susan says it needed it weeks' ago - so Pete got to work.  Looking great!!!!  Feeling pretty again......

Saturday, 10 November

A grey blank sky greets us this morning after a night of heavy rain.  It starts to rain just as we leave......

Susan and Mazey prep the 3 Soulbury Locks after Susan struggles to get her wet weather gear on - I can hear her cursing when she gets dressed.

Grand Union pub overlooks Soulbury 3 locks

At Leighton lock, prior to Leighton Buzzard, Susan walks up to the lock and helps the single boater arriving from the opposite direction to prep the lock.  It is difficult to do the locks if you are on your own.  There is another boat waiting going in the same direction as us but he decides to not help out and waits by the side of his boat - lazy ***!!!!  Whilst Susan helps another boat comes along, so Susan helps them through too.  They all thank her and one of the 3 men on board say she is very public spirited.  Eventually, we get into the lock and carry on to Leighton Buzzard.

We stop for a bit whilst Susan goes food shopping in the canal-side Tescos..... 2 hour wait only here.  Lots of waterfowl getting fed by walkers and shoppers.

Leighton Buzzard

At Grove lock there are a lot of gongoozlers - mainly children.  The lock is overlooked by a popular pub.  A young boy called Chrisopher asks Susan if he can help.  So they do the lock together.  He is really excited.....  Thanks to all the helpers at the lock!!!!

After pump-out we moor opposite the small marina for the evening.  Such a beautiful night sky.  More fireworks can be heard in the distance.

Night view

Total 5 locks, 5 miles

Friday, 9 November 2012

A dull day but not raining yet!!!

After 3 miles we get to Fenny Stratford lock.  Pete and Mazey prep this one as there is a swing bring in the middle of the lock and it was too heavy for Susan last time we came through here.

I had a collision today with an idiot boater - who came around a bend going far to fast.  I had slowed almost to 'tick over' as we were passing moored boats on both sides when this boat came at us from the opposite direction.  After hitting us the 'boaters' shrugged their shoulders and threw their hands up in the air to apologise. Pete growled at them and said 'Slow down'.........  I was a bit annoyed too......  If you drive up to a bend and cannot see around it you should go slower.....  it is good etiquette after all!!

A large heron played 'tag' with me today.  Great fun but I could not catch it up...

Lots of moored boats along this stretch - boats are now being moored up for the winter.... resting...  I wonder when I get a chance to rest........

Total 2 locks, 6.5 miles

Milton Keynes - Campell and Willen Park

This is a great place to moor at this time of year.  Not sure if we would like it during the summer as would probably be too busy with walkers, cyclists, etc.,  - possibly even drunks and druggies, Pete says ;-((  Dog toilet-bins are sadly lacking too!!  Very odd.....

Thursday:

They went for a walk today, along Popular tree-lined pathways and then across more parkland in a different direction to see the Peace Pagoda (a peaceful, beautiful, place of worship built by Buddhists) and a Bird Sanctuary in Willen Lake - loads of waterfowl.  The rain held off......  Very peaceful walk and stunning views.  Sadly the photos were taken with Susan's Nikon and are too large to reduce to web sizes.....  Next time Susan will have to remember to use her smaller compact Leica camera for web pictures.

There is also a Buddhist temple near the Peace Pagoda.  As well as a circular rock medicine-wheel formation erected in 2011.


Wednesday:

It took Susan and Pete 20 minutes to walk to the centre of Milton Keynes across pretty parkland.  They only got lost once!!!  Many sculptures like the light structure below, totem poles, etc., to keep walkers occupied and interested.  Saw woodpeckers, robins, magpies and squirrels.

View of mooring in Milton Keynes

Light structure on top of a mound in Campbell Park

Skyfall was good but Pete enjoyed it more than Susan!!  Susan said that she can't wait for Breaking Dawn Part 2 to be released next week......  There is a fairground at the end of the park which explains the base-beat heard each night on the boat.

The shopping centre was opposite the leisure centre so they popped in for a little retail therapy!!!

Milton Keynes

A chilly, frosty, sunny morning greets us today!! Warm hats and gloves are the order for today!!

Mazey was unwell this morning so Pete and Susan got up early....  By 9:00 am she seems to be improving so they decide to continue their journey to Milton Keynes, Campbell Park.

Once I was replenished with water, Susan and Mazey walk off to prepare the lock.  Pete stays on-board to guide me into the lock.  All goes well.  It is a lock which does not drop down very far.

Pete 

Susan

So many boats!!

Cosgrove lock

A mile further on we stop at Wolverton, where Susan walks over the bridge to Tescos.  There is also a small Asda opposite the 24 hour Tesco.  Pete and Mazey chill out...  Susan came back looking like a cart horse - with 4 bags full of shopping: a backpack, a side bag, and two large Tescos bags.  I think Pete should go along next time - don't you!!!

As we head off again it starts to rain.  It takes us a while to cruise the 6 miles as there are lots of moored boats on both sides of the canal - slow going.  Pete gets excited when he spots another Kingfisher but, yet again, unable to get a photo before it flies off......

We moor up prior to bridge 81B on the Grand Union Canal nr. Campbell Park, Milton Keynes.  It is very busy here too.  Only room for one boat to moor!!!  The leisure park with cinema complex is a short walk from here through the park so tomorrow Susan and Pete plan to go to see Skyfall.  If there is time, Susan said that she would like to visit the Peace Pagoda, Willen Lake and the bird sanctuary which is on our left.  As it is still raining Pete suggests going tomorrow!!!  Not too far from Bletchley Park either - so they might stop there in a few day's time....

Within one hour of arriving, Pete and Mazey are asleep in front of the cosy stove which is belting out heat....

Total achievement: 7 miles, 1 lock

Goodbye to Stony Stratford and Cosgrove

We have been busy!!!  Tuesday, last week, we turned around at the winding hole in Cosgrove near the lock and returned to Stoke Bruerne (5.5 miles), bottom lock, to get fuel etc., from the working boat.  However, the lock keeper informed Pete that we had just missed them and they were heading in the opposite direction.  Pete made the decision not to chase them through the locks, so I got to turn around again!!!

It was chilly and wet......  Not that I mind but Pete and Mazey were getting fed up in the damp weather.  Susan was inside making cups of tea and sandwiches to keep them fuelled.  On the way back, Pete decided to stop at Baxter's Boatyard instead to get fuel, water, pump out and a new gas bottle.  He did not expect to come across a rogue boat which had slipped its mooring....

It took ages to get past this boat.  At one point Pete was going to 'gently' ram the boat into the sidings.  I was not happy about this idea........  Thought it might hurt!!!!  No-one was on the boat or on the boat opposite it on the towpath side of the canal.  A queue was forming....  At last, someone from the boat yard realised what was occurring and managed to start pulling the boat back onto the mooring.  We managed to squeeze past it and get to the boat yard.  PHEW tight squeeze.

Pile-up on canal

After a complete sort out at the boat yard, we continue to Grafton Regis.  Lovely spot with fields of sheep.  Then it kept raining and raining and raining.

By the next morning, I was keeled over to one side as the mooring ropes were dragging me over.  Pete realised this was due to the sheer amount of water and released the tension.  All straight again.....  The weir was overflowing  - there was a current in the normally still canal..

At breakfast two woodpeckers were spotted in the field.  Cameras at the ready....  A magpie also decided to sit on a sheep's head.... and groom it.....

Once again, we set off in the rain.  No locks along this stretch so Susan disappears and cleans the inside whilst Pete and Mazey get wet on the back.  The fields are flooded.

Flooded fields

There is a mooring near Thrupp Wharf, opposite the Navigation Pub.  Jan meets Susan and Pete for a quick pint lunchtime.  The sun shines again...... Yah!!!

View from Navigation Pub

Next day, we head off to Cosgrove for the weekend.  Pete walks to meet Jan on the Friday at Wolverton House Pub - the fields are very flooded and Pete says it was nearly up to his knees in places......  It keeps raining....

Susan meets her girl-friends (June, Una, Yvette and Pauline) in Stony Stratford on Saturday.  Pete meets up with Jan and Tim (who stays overnight).

The girls stay in The Old George.

After some retail therapy in Stony Stratford, the girls eat in the Calcutta Indian restaurant which is the most amazing place ever.   It is a converted chapel.  Food was yummy....  The girls have fun and laugh a lot.  Susan returns on Sunday.  "Thanks girls for a wonderful time" Susan says.   Mazey is really excited and pleased to greet Susan back.

"The Muckers" - Junie's garden

Calcutta Indian Restaurant - Stony Stratford

Now the fun is over we are returning to the River Lea and River Stort for winter.  Booked in to Roydon Marina from December to mid-January.  Catch up soon!!