The forecast for today wasn’t good, so the bigger surprise was that. Macc got his pre-breakfast walk in the dry. He’d also slept in, so none of us were up until almost 8am. It started raining while we had breakfast, and was quite steady. As we always knew we were likely to get wet, we set off anyway — with a plan to go to the water point a couple of bridges away. As we approached we could see a boat already there, but they were just getting ready to leave so we could take their place.
The service mooring is right outside the modern houses that were built here a good few years ago now. As it happened, the water point itself is beyond the stern of the boat, and the pressure wasn’t enough to fill up our longer expanding hosepipe, so we gave up on the idea of filling up. We did make use of the rubbish and Elsan though. Then I walked round the corner to set the first lock, while Adrian brought the boat. As we have time, we’d decided to take a diversion down the Aylesbury Arm. When I got to the lock I found paddles open at both ends, meaning water was being run down. I walked down to see what was going on, and found the pound between the third and fourth locks pretty much empty.
There were a couple of CRT guys at the next lock who said they have to do this regularly. Adrian had been talking to someone at the junction who’d said a few boats came up off the arm yesterday because it was so shallow; the guys said this was likely because someone hadn’t been doing their job properly over the weekend. We don’t need to do the arm, so we considered giving it a miss, but the guys said it would only be half an hour or so, and that we’d be fine down here — so we waited. Once the pounds were full of water again we set off into the top lock; all the hanging around meant it was 11am.
The top two locks of the Aylesbury Arm are a staircase pair, the only staircase on the southern part of the Grand Union.
There was a hire boat waiting to come up, so I filled the top lock for them as we went down the second one, and the helmsman walked back and opened Lock 3 for us. It was a bit gloomy but not actually raining, and it’s still pretty down here.
Lock 4 has a nice house alongside. The guys had also made such a good job of filling the pounds that there was lots of water coming over the top gates.
We worked our way down with the next few locks all full up because of the amount of water around. It was only when we got to Locks 7 and 8 that we found them empty, and with a bottom paddle up for some reason. Below Lock 8 are some more modern houses that we liked last time we came down.
After Lock 8 are the Wilstone moorings, and as it was now almost 12.30 we decided we’d stop for the day. In distance terms, we only done just over a mile — but we’re actually in a different county, Hertfordshire. We moored up just beyond a footbridge, in the most open spot available.
On the towpath side is a playing field which Macc enjoyed having a run around in when we got here. After lunch I took him out again and went over the footbridge, where a path goes across a field of long grass — and this one he loved even more. He went completely berserk, maybe because all the grass was wet, running backwards and forwards like nobody’s business, and sometimes skidding to a halt and ending up on his chin! It is great to see him enjoying himself though.
I also went for a look round the village, mainly in case the community shop had something local and tasty for dessert this evening. They didn’t, although it’s a pretty well stocked shop. A few people have also told us what a nice pub the Half Moon is, although I doubt we’ll try it.
There’s a tree down before the end of the arm, and so far there’s been nothing to say it’s been cleared so we’re unlikely to get to the basin tomorrow. We phoned the Canal Society to see if they had a visitor space available for tomorrow night but they’re full, so we’ll just have to see where we end up.
1 mile, 8 locks. (56 miles, 47 locks)