Macc absolutely loved Stanton Low Park. We took him for a run around off the lead after dinner last night, and this morning I took him again, this time walking down to the church ruins.
We had only a short hop to do today, so timed our departure for 9.30 in the hopes that our preferred mooring at the other end would be free by the time we arrived. It’s a long plod through Milton Keynes, very familiar waters even more full than ever with moored boats. I thought the old Wharf House at Great Linford looked particularly nice today.
Shortly after this we met a widebeam coming the other way, and I hung back as there was the remains of a fallen tree sticking out onto the canal. Then after Gifford Park we passed some sort of big Dutch boat; I was glad we’d met it here and not slightly further on, where there’s a sharp bend, moored boats, and a bridge.
Electric propulsion is great for these stretches with lots of moored boats, where you have to go slowly anyway. Today’s four miles took just over an hour and a half, that’s how slow it was. We came under the Portway bridge and began to come round the bend towards Campbell Park, wondering if any mooring would be available on the park side. Amazingly, the whole length was clear — probably because it’s 48 hours, and most boats round here want to stay longer (often a lot longer!). We chose to go on the straight bit at the far end.
We immediately took Macc for an explore of the bit of the park near the boat, which includes some of the public art here.
We decided to go to Canal Street Coffee for lunch. It’s along at Campbell Wharf, so we walked along to the next bridge and back over the canal on the new(ish) Y-shaped bridge. The toasted sandwiches were very good, and Macc behaved himself too.
On the way back, Macc had another off lead session near the boat, zooming up and down the hill between us. In fact coming down the hill he almost had trouble stopping! This afternoon, Adrian has walked into Milton Keynes shopping centre as he had an eye test booked and a few other things to get. I’ve made another podcast and uploaded and scheduled the next two. I’ve also done the monthly check on the battery water situation (neither bank needed any) and checked the weedhatch as I was pretty sure we had something round the prop. It was only weed, but it was pretty firmly wound round the shaft.
4 miles, 0 locks. (35 miles, 22 locks)