Flaming June it isn’t. We had quite a lot of rain yesterday evening, overnight, and this morning. When I took Macc out for his walk I put full waterproofs on; he didn’t seem to mind the rain, in fact it sent him a bit loopy and he was running zoomies round the park. It just meant he needed a good towelling off when we got back. The rain had become patchy during breakfast, so at about 9.30 I put my waterproof trousers back on over my shorts and we set off. Just round the corner was the rusty bridge we walked over yesterday.
I did the first bit on electric as it’s a much nicer way to pass moored boats, but I also wanted to use the engine to give the batteries a bit of extra charge. I made the switch when I thought most of the moored boats were behind us — but in reality there’s hardly a stretch in Milton Keynes without them. I reckon that during the whole journey we never went more than a minute or two at a decent speed before having to slow down for yet more moored boats, or sometimes just one (which seems even more frustrating sometimes!). After what seemed like n age, we reached Fenny Stratford Lock, and Adrian got off to empty it and swing the bridge out of the way.
This lock is the start of our climb up the Chilterns, although it begins modestly as this one has a rise of only a foot. As we were in the lock a boat arrived to come down so we could leave the gates and the bridge (although as it happened some CRT guys arrived and swung the bridge back for them). We stopped on the water point nd filled the tank, got rid of rubbish, and used the Elsan. While the tank was filling, I had another go at resetting the gauge by unplugging it and plugging it back in again, which appeared successful at the time but now seems less so. Also while we were there, one of the little trains that shuttles between Bletchley and Bedford came over the bridge.
There were more moored boats all along the next stretch too. As we passed Willowbridge Marina, a man commented on how nice our boat looked. Just after that, CRT appeared to have cleared all the boats from the offside, where a handy lay-by runs alongside the canal, and have put up No Mooring signs. Of course the lay-by is still full of vans and motor homes.
Just below Stoke Hammond Lock, there’s been a lovely Dutch barge type boat moored for as long as we can remember. It’s no longer there, but a much smaller boat is. And there’s what I think is a new house on the land behind it.
A little further along, the Epic Boat Company has expanded its operations. They’ve done hire a hire boat from here for a while, but now there’s all sorts of things.
We’d just passed a Wyvern hire boat going the other way so assumed Stoke Hammond Lock would be empty for us, but there was another boat about to come down. This is one of the locks with a double bridge; the left hand one is where the old single lock used to be, before they upgraded the canal to double locks.
As we went up the lock, what I think is a black headed gull sat on the gate, then went to the top end and sat on the raised paddle gear.
We should probably have stopped on the piling just round the corner from the lock, but I remember being there once and having a cockerel just the other side of the hedge, so we carried on hoping for a space between the old swing bridge and Bridge 106. There wasn’t — although there would have been if people hadn’t left such big gaps between boats. So we carried on through the bridge and found a spot a bit further along. It’s actually quite nice here, and much better than further along where the road comes close. It was around 1.30 when we stopped, so the journey had taken an eternity.
While the sun shone for most of the morning (probably because I had my waterproofs on), this afternoon has been decidedly showery, with some of them heavy. We do now feel as though we’ve escaped the clutches of Milton Keynes, although it remains to be seen whether the number of moored boats reduces.
7 miles, 2 locks. (42 miles, 24 locks)