Great Linford to Old Linslade…

On Wednesday we left Great Linford and cruised the delights of Milton Keynes.  Interesting in a way, but boring in it’s sameness!  Interesting to see what a large town can do to make it’s canal a ‘linear park’, but it was all the same – miles of trees and footpaths, with the occasional glimpse of the ever-present roundabouts!  Pennyland basin was the only really innovative bit, where the water was in and around the houses creating watery driveways for boat owners to ‘park’ their boats outside their own homes.                                                                                                             Heron in Milton Keynes

We moored for the rest of the day just before Fenny Stratford Lock, and went for a look at the village and to find the chippy.  We duly partook of fish and chips for our dinner, but were disappointed in the quality of the fish, very cotton-woolly and bland, but the batter was lovely and crisp and the chips were good too.  Oh well, you can’t have it all, I suppose!!

On Thursday morning we did a short hop through Stoke Hammond lock and the Soulbury three.  There were a lot of gongoozlers outside the Three Locks pub, so, cowardice being the better part of valour in this case, I declined Rog’s offer to work the locks while I drove, and set to in earnest with my trusty windlass.  Not alone, I hasten to add, we had company in the form of another boat which didn’t have it’s name displayed, but had dragons painted on it’s bow.

We moored about a mile further on, just near Old Linslade.  It is around here that the Great Train Robbery happened, but we’re not sure exactly where.  Nicholson's says it happened near the Globe pub which is just round the bend from where we are moored, and Pearson’s has it on a lonely stretch of track north of Cheddington, which is the other side of Leighton Buzzard.  Rog is 'Google-ing it as I write to find out which is correct.

                                                                                                              The railway track 

Open countryside from our mooring

We decided to stay here today as the weather forecast last night wasn’t good, and it has proved to be a wise decision – we’ve had torrential rain and thunderstorms since about 10 o’clock this morning.  I took the opportunity to take Cassie for a walk when it seemed to clear up about 3.30, but was caught out in another heavy shower within 10 minutes of setting out.  Didn’t last long though, but it is raining so hard again now that it’s bouncing up and under the mushroom vents, and dripping into the boat!

Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow – we want to go into Leighton Buzzard to Aldi to stock up on chocolate (Aldi chocolate is THE BEST!)

PS – Google wasn’t much help with the actual location of the GTR – several sites Rog looked at couldn’t agree either!

Morning visitors…

Monday 13th July

A quick trip down Stoke Bruerne locks and a 2 hour trip across the lonely landscape of the six mile pound between Stoke  Bruerne and Cosgrove, where we moored for the rest of the day.

Tuesday 14th July

This morning, while we were watering prior to leaving Cosgrove we had some visitors, a herd of beautiful cows (maybe Jerseys)and their calves came to drink opposite our mooring.

We stopped in Wolverton to do a shop in the 24 hour Tesco superstore, and we managed to find me a new camera.  It’s an early birthday present from Rog.  We moved on a little way and moored just before Milton Keynes really begins, almost at Great Linford.  While Rog did a bit of fishing, Cassie and I went exploring, and I took my new camera to play with. These are some of the photos that I took, and I’m very pleased with them.

Just around the corner, I found a memorial with a nice poem 

   We found a footpath leading across a field towards a ruined building which turned out be be an old chapel, I think.A lake, glimpsed through the trees

 

Protective iron-work on the edge of a bridge with deep grooves cut by the old towing ropes

A stile leading nowhere – why??

Success!

Tomorrow we will cruise through Milton Keynes without stopping – we had planned to go shopping for my camera but there is no need now, and we don’t like crowds and noisy towns anymore.  We plan to moor at Fenny Stratford as Rog is feeling the need for Fish and Chips or a take-away Chinese.

A weekend at Stoke Bruerne Part II

Saturday 11th July

First thing this morning we decided find out if there were any geo-caches in the area as we haven’t done any for ages, also we wanted to launch our own Travel Bug to travel the waterways. Sorry the photo is a bit blurred, but I’m not a very good photographer when it comes to close –ups.

Sure enough there were two caches in the area, only one was a micro cache so no good for putting stuff in, so we set off along the old horse path to find the other. This is a lovely path, signposted Woodland Walk from the towpath right where we were moored.

Along the way there are some copper wire sculptures – a horse and cart, a fox, and a couple of deer.

We soon found the cache, after a scramble up a steep bank. It was bad enough going up, but going down was worse – I got the giggles and ended up having to go down on my bum!

We found a Help for Heroes geo-coin and decided to move it on

We returned to the boat just in time to see the boat in front Rock ‘n Roll (fellow bloggers, although we didn’t know it at the time) being refuelled by the diesel boat ‘nb Towcester. Always willing to use the people who trade along the canals, we decided to fill up as well.

Backing up Getting into position Filling up

And what a cheerful lot they were too – it was well worth it for the banter and cheek they gave us! Jokes about shiny boats and scratches were at the forefront, and when they found out that we were retired and CCing they gave us no end of stick! Just jealous, they admitted in the end!

After they had left, we carried on to find the other cache – it took some finding as it was so tiny, but find it we did, in the end.

Back to the boat for lunch and then a trip to the museum – not a lot different from when we were last there, but good to look around all the same. While we were there we spotted that there was a wedding reception going on at ‘The Boat’ over the other side of the canal, and were in an ideal place to take a photo, being upstairs in the museum.

The guests were also treated to rides on the trip boat, nb Indian Chief, which is resident outside ‘The Boat’, and seemed to be having a great time. We were photographed so many times during the weekend that Rog decided to get his own back later on when the other, smaller trip ‘Charlie’ boat came past.

We had our two meals for a tenner in ‘The Navigation, and were distinctly under-whelmed! I know you get what you pay for, but we’ve had better. Rog said his liver and onions were ‘ok’, but the mash tasted like instant, and my Sweet and Sticky Chicken tasted like something ‘Boil in the Bag’ – very light on the chicken and heavy on the sweet potato. We were tempted to cancel our booking for Sunday lunch, but in the end we thought we’d give them another chance.

Sunday 12th July

We had a very lazy start this morning, not breakfasting until nearly 10 o’clock, then took Cassie for another walk along the old horse path. We went for our Sunday lunch, and it was much better than the evening before, although, again, we’ve had better. We will give The Navigation a miss next time we come through, and try The Boat instead.

Rog did a bit of fishing this afternoon, and then I took Cassie for yet another walk along the horse path, this time as far as I could go before it turned into a road.

I don’t think we’ll do too much stopping in popular tourist spots – I’ve got a little fed up of being in a goldfish bowl, however, I suppose you have to accept being asked lots of stupid questions when you are moored in a place like this.

Blisworth Tunnel entrance – Stoke Bruerne end

The Wharf

Pastures new tomorrow!

A weekend at Stoke Bruerne

We decided that we would like to spend the weekend moored at Stoke Bruerne as it is one of our favourite spots, but weren’t at all confident about getting a space, so thought we’d see what the situation was when we arrived.  We waved as we passed Ann and Chas on Moore 2 Life yet again this morning – they have a space booked for a fortnight in Gayton Marina starting on Monday while they visit relatives, so will be hanging around there for the weekend.  Give them a toot and a wave if you pass.

We watered at Gayton Junction again, and headed on to Blisworth tunnel.  We like tunnels.  There was a boat coming towards us soon after we entered, and we could hear lots of shouting -  so we approached with caution just in case they were in trouble.  It turned out that husband was standing in the bow, yelling instructions and directions to his wife who was steering.  They stopped and waited for us to pass, which made life a bit difficult as, of course, they lost steerage way.  Anyway, we managed to squeeze past with not too much scraping – he then proceeded to start all over again as there was a boat following us!  It was most disconcerting – I wish people wouldn’t do that!

Anyway, when we arrived at Stoke Bruerne we found an ideal mooring spot, just where the trees open out, but before the wharf.  After mooring up we wandered up to the Navigation to check their menu – oh and were tempted in for lunch and yet another cider!  Booked for dinner tomorrow night – 2 meals for a tenner, and also for Sunday lunch at £6.95 each – you can’t beat that for price, and I hate cooking on a Sunday!

Our weekend mooring

View from the stern, although we have been joined by another boat by the time I write this

Beside our mooring is a footpath signposted ‘Woodland Walk’ so we will have lots of nice walks for Cassie over the weekend, and we will do the tourist bit and visit the museum as it’s years since we last went.  However, tonight it’s bangers, potato wedges and baked beans for dinner, and the last episode of Torchwood on the telly – can’t wait!!

Day-trippers….

Thursday 9th July

We had a lovely meal in The Wharf at Bugbrooke on Wednesday evening, not cheap, but not too expensive as restaurants go – Rog had mussels with big chunky chips, and I had belly of pork with toffee apple stuffing – all very yummy!

Thursday morning saw us up bright and early to prepare for our ‘royal’ visitors, my Mum and her friend June. (Mum hates having her photo taken so I didn’t attempt to get the camera out and point it at them, so no photos I’m afraid). We have reason to be very grateful to June, who is a great friend to Mum, visiting several times a week, and running her here there and anywhere she needs to go in her car. June has ‘routes’! She only drives to places she knows these days, and Bugbrooke is ‘on her route’. She had always shown a great deal of interest in the planning and development of Windsong, so we asked if she’d like to come along to the launch, which she duly did and hasn’t stopped talking about since. We had promised her a day out when we reached Bugbrooke and the day had arrived. After we had shown her all over the boat we set off to Gayton Junction as we knew we could turn around there. On the way, we came across fellow bloggers Chas and Ann on Moore 2 Life. We were aware that they were just ahead of us, as we had a message on Wed that they had just missed us in Bugbrooke and were moored about 20 minutes south by bridge 42.

Ann and Chas

Us all

Of course, we stopped to have a natter for half an hour. They came and had a look around Windsong, and we had a look at the modifications that they had made in the saloon and galley since we had last seen them when they were stranded on the Nene just 10 minutes from where we lived. It was great to catch up with you both. Hope that your enforced fortnight’s land-lubbing isn’t too stressful. Maybe we’ll see you on our way back north later on in the summer or early autumn.

After we’d watered and done the cassette at Gayton Junction we turned around and headed back towards Bugbrooke, stopping for to have some lunch on the way. We managed to moor outside the Wharf pub again to drop our day-trippers off, and June insisted that she buy us a drink to say thanks. Of course, we accepted – well, it would have been rude not too!! We waved them off about quarter to five, and then moved the boat a couple of hundred yards back towards Gayton. We then had to have a little sleep – well, I say ‘we’, but I think Rog was catching up with emails etc while I had a little sleep! Omelette and salad for us for dinner as we were still full up from lunch and cider, and Day 4 of ‘Torchwood – Children of Earth’ on the telly.

Crick to Bugbrooke…

Not a lot to blog about really,  just to keep everyone up to date as to where we are.

We had a nice quiet evening on Monday at Crick, after Hirohito, the kamikaze moorhen decide to leave us alone, and set off on Tuesday morning to do the tunnel and Watford Locks.  We were soaked to the skin by the time we got there, but the rain stopped and we got down mostly in the dry.  We planned to moor last night at Buckby, but, as usual most of the visitor moorings were full of BW work boats, taking up three quarters of a good long stretch of visitor moorings.  I know that they have to moor somewhere, but it does make my blood boil!!!  We managed to get in just above Buckby locks to have some lunch and dry off, but we were too close really to moor there overnight, so we joined another boat for the trip down the locks.  It was very quick, as they had 3 crew, and we waved goodbye to them at the bottom as we wanted a few bits in Whilton Chandlery.

We moved on a bit so that we could get a decent telly picture as we didn’t want to miss Torchwood, which we had enjoyed on Monday evening.  We found a spot where the M1 and the railway noise weren’t too bad.

This morning we had a nice easy trip to Bugbrooke, where we are picking up Mum and her friend tomorrow.  Of course, as soon as we arrived we just had to go and re-acquaint ourselves with the Wharf pub, where we had lunch, and booked in for an evening meal tonight (well, I’ve cleaned up for the ‘royal’ visit, and don’t want to mess it up by cooking!!)

Hopefully, we will get some photos tomorrow – we keep forgetting to get the cameras out!!

Downtown Hill and a kamikaze moorhen at Crick….

Sunday 5th July

We decamped from Welford at about 11 o’clock on Sunday morning as it wasn’t ideal for Cassie, the towpath also being the road to the marina, with frequent vehicular comings and goings.  We only went a couple of hours towards Crick, and found a lovely peaceful spot by Bridge 36, looking out on Downtown Hill, and there we stayed.  Rog did some fishing and I decided to watch the Men’s final, but I fell asleep through most of it

 

These were the views of our ‘garden’ for the evening.

Cassie was very interested in something floating on the water

Monday 6th July

We set off this morning around 10, intending to at least get to Crick to moor, or maybe even to go through the tunnel and down Watford Locks today, but the weather played it’s part today, and it was slow going.  We arrived at crick at about 2 o’clock and the moorings were almost empty, so decided to stay.  Just in time, as the heavens opened yet again, and we had a thunderstorm with torrential rain.  We also made the acquaintance of the kamikaze moorhen of Crick!  Every time we walked past the side hatch, she flew at us, demanding food.  She had 4 babies with her, small, black balls of fluff, and surprisingly ugly for babies!

The poor Mallard was flinching every time she made a leap at us

Having done some extremely expensive shopping at the Co-Op in Crick village, we settled down for the rest of the afternoon.  A good decision I think, because it has rained several times in the last hour.  We will tackle Watford Locks tomorrow, and maybe Buckby Locks as well if we are feeling energetic!