Aylesbury, Au Revoirs and a Grand Cruise

Setting off down the Aylesbury Arm

(Discovering I can backdate blog entries is not good, but I have been very busy…..)

The Aylesbury arm is lovely, very rural and some great views and at the end of the navigation, a lovely new basin awaits you with plenty of services; three water points, bins, toilets and showers – AND a Waitrose in the basin itself!  This was an ideal spot from where to hire a car to take mum to Luton on Wednesday and we would head to Caterham to pick up things from Kitty Cate and bid her fare well.

This lovely new development was under construction the last time we were here

The lovely new basin in Aylesbury with the Waterside Theatre in the background, which was so pretty lit up at night.

Entrance to the basin with services along the right hand side of the picture

Can't get much closer to Waitrose than this!!

After a few days of intense boating, it was nice to have a day off, but sad to say goodbye to mum and Kitty Cate.  I cried again when we left the car but not when we left mum at Luton, as we would be seeing her again in a couple of weeks.  However, the next morning, having taken a bag of stuff to the charity shop, picked up our free coffees from Waitrose, I found myself missing mum as we headed back up the arm to Marsworth.

Very narrow bridge holes on the Aylesbury Arm

After a quiet night at Marsworth, we set off sharply with quite a long day ahead of us, as we hoped to get to the Globe pub on the far side of Leighton Buzzard.  I was looking forward to this section as the last time I had been confined downstairs with a terrible cold and hadn’t seen much of it and I wasn’t disappointed – it’s a really pretty section of the GU.  Luck wasn’t on our side and we found ourselves going solo most of the day.  As we headed into the first lock at Marsworth, a chap just pulling off in the opposite direction said the pound below had emptied itself overnight (self-emptying pounds?? Really??), so just take care, though the levels looked okay now.  They were and we had no problem at all.  At Great Seabrook Lock we were just in time to see a boat leaving the lock in the same direction as us, and the lady now at the lock was waiting for her son to bring their widebeam round to come up, so we pulled over and put the coffee on.  The strange thing was, the boat that was travelling the same way as us had passed us at Marsworth just as I got up, so it had been a good hour at least ahead….  When we finally caught up with them at Church lock, we discovered that they had been in time to find the pound at Marsworth empty and had had to run water through to continue which had taken quite some time.  The chap said it served them right for setting off so early and I laughed and said I was about to say the same!!

As we headed through Leighton and Linslade, lots of the hire boats from the Wyvern hire company were heading off – well, it was Friday afternoon after all.  So when we got Leighton Lock we found ourselves joining up with a family setting off, with the chap from Wyvern showing them what to do and what not to do.  As we descended the lock, he asked if I would mind driving out together with them through the open gates, which I was happy to do.  However, when Mike pushed his gate back, it wouldn’t go all the way, so shouted and said we’d need to come out one at a time.  The guy shouted back, “No, it’s fine, it’s always like that, we’ll get the two through together.”  We weren’t so sure, but he was local and experienced so we trusted his judgement and I gingerly edged forward alongside the hire boat.  Things were getting tight and eventually there was a ping and twang and I hit reverse, but too late – we lost a fender and hanger.  Mike was furious, but all the bloke from the hire company said was, “Oh.  You must be wider than other narrowboats.”  Er no, we’re not.  We headed out first and left the hirers getting the rest of their briefing, regretting that we hadn’t just let them come through on their own and waited for NB Lilly Pad to go down together but hey ho, you live and learn.  We had been going to eat at the Globe as we’d had a nice meal there a couple of years ago, but we had food we needed to use up, so I went for a run, Mike cooked dinner and it was all quiet on the Western front – very quiet as there’s no tv signal there.

Next morning we set off, wanting to get to Milton Keynes so we could have a couple of nights there as we had some shopping to do.  There were a few boats on the move, but no one to pair down with at Soulsbury Three Locks, until we were sitting in the second lock and looked back to see a boat arrive at the top.  We said we’d wait for them so we could do the last two together, but as they got the lock set and in, a hire boat arrived, so they said they’d come down with them, as they’d be able to help them.  So having waited for about half an hour, we continued on down the next two locks on our own.  Through our last downhill lock at Fenny Stratford, we continued on for a couple of hours til we reached Campbell Park, where the visitor moorings were packed full of widebeams!!  There were two of them on the park side and three on the towpath side, with a few narrowboats tagged on to the end.  We’ve never seen it so busy!  We reversed back around the corner and moored up next to another narrow boat and later on, another two arrived, so we weren’t short of company.

There are lovely views behind the morning fog

Definitely into Autumn

Our mooring at Cambell Park, hiding away from the widebeams

We built the bikes up, discovering I had a puncture, so fixed that and headed up to the town centre.  It’s an uphill cycle of about a mile which we both hate, but John Lewis is at the end, which we both like.

The following day, we were off on the bikes again, this time slightly further afield to Argos, where we were to collect four balloon fenders we’d ordered for France.  They arrived in a huge box, fully inflated, so we had to squat on the pavement and use our bike tools to deflate the big, blue sausages, which were then tied to our bikes for the cycle home.

On Monday 10^th October we set off northwards again.  We needed water and to dump rubbish but someone had just pulled onto the waterpoint at Gifford Park, so we continued on to Cosgrove.  Monday must be water day in that area.  Someone had just pulled onto the water point below the lock, but that was fine as there was a boat in the lock going up and they had seen us coming and waited for us to share – wooohoooo!!!  There was someone on the water point above the lock too, but we decided to pull in and drop off our rubbish and see how long they were going to be as we could have lunch while we waited.  As we pulled in, Mike looked for our hanging fender to pop over the edge of the boat – it wasn’t there.  We looked on the front deck, but it wasn’t there either.  I had seen it the previous night at Campbell Park as I noticed that due to the angle of piling we were on, it wasn’t doing anything and was just hanging loose, but I left it in case we got pushed in at the back end by a passing boat.  That was the last we saw of it.  Clearly someone had passed us in the night and helped themselves to it.  The most annoying thing about having boat stuff pinched off your boat is that it can only have been another boater that has taken it, and yet we’re all part of the boating community so it’s like stealing from your neighbour.  The girl on the water point had just started to fill and would be some time as she was empty and with a large tank, so we chatted for a few minutes with her and then decided to carry on up to Stoke Bruerne, where we were headed for and there are several water points at the bottom of the locks.

Nice mural coming out of Milton Keynes

We have seen a lot more widebeams on the cut this year as floating homes become more popular

 

The pretty bridge at Cosgrove - you've seen it before, but it's pretty, so here it is again

In all the times we've done this stretch, I think this is the first time we've ever seen this overflow pipe from the River Tone in action

As we approached Stoke Bruerne a boat was just disappearing into the lock.  They must have seen us, but continued up anyway so we guessed there must have been another boat in there with them.  As we pulled in for water, a chap also filling said, that two hotel boats had just gone up, so the locks would be against us if no one else came down.  Our tank was nearly full when there was some action at the bottom lock – a CRT craft was coming down, so we cast off and headed into the open lock once they were through.  The rest of the locks were against us, but with our new way of doing locks single-handedly, we were up the flight of seven locks in no time.  There was plenty of space to moor and we just got the ropes secure as the heavens opened and one of the heaviest showers of the season yet dropped on us.  Once the rain had stopped we got ourselves ready and went out for a curry at the best curry house on the cut; Spice of Bruerne – delicious!!!

Swan family at Stoke Bruerne

Heading through sunny Blisworth after the darkness of the tunnel

Our final days cruising for a while took us up to Weedon.  It was a beautiful day and I thought again how much I’d enjoyed the Grand Union and heading back to Weedon now kind of feels like going home.  We moored up at Weedon, but didn’t have a lot of time to catch up as we were picking up a hire car to go up to Leeds – well, we were doing Pip and Mick of NB Lillyanne’s trick and had hired a van for half the price of a car for the day!  Mike had an appointment on the Wednesday to get discharged from the chest clinic so had booked a hotel in the centre as the appointment was early.  The hotel overlooked the river and was an old brewery, so had beams in the room – very nice.  And a nice big bath!  The appointment on Wednesday went to time and we were heading out of Leeds by 9.40am, stopping for breakfast at a service station en route.

Back at Weedon we had a couple of days to get the boat ship-shape before handing her over to friends of a friend for a week’s hire on the Saturday.  Such a frenzy of cleaning, painting and tidying – she looked great.  We were looking forward to Fish and Chip Friday with Jim, Jack and Steve at the yard, but were gutted to see the Fish and Chip shop was shut for a holiday!  We had to make to with chips from the Chinese and rolls from Tesco to make chip butties instead.  The season's string of animal rescues continued in Weedon when I popped up to Tesco for some food.  Coming back there was a little brown mouse on the pavement, completely freaked out at being near such a busy road, with huge lorries thundering by.  It ran between my feet, then ran again and tried to dig through the brick wall into someone's garden.  "Aw - wee mouse!" I said, put my bag down and scooped him up in my hands - as light as a feather.  He gave me a wee nip (I like to think of gratitude) and popped him over the wall and into the safety of the garden.  He hadn't broken the skin of my hand, which surprised me, I thought he would've bitten harder........  I hope he found his way home - though the owners of the house in the garden probably hope he didn't.......

On Saturday Wayne and Liz arrived just before 11am and we gave them a tour of the boat and went over everything with them and then set them on their way.  They were heading for Oxford, hoping to get close enough to have a day in Oxford, even if they had to bus it from slightly further out.

Jim gave Mike and I a lift to Long Buckby station where we took the train back up to Scotland to spend a few days at mums.  I would also be sitting my Short Range Certificate VHF Radio exam, for which I had been swotting furiously for the last few weeks, which is my excuse for being so lax with the blog!  It’s not entirely down to laziness you know!