We awoke to pleasant sunshine - as forecast - but this quickly disappeared for the rest of the morning behind grey clouds. Nevertheless, it remained dry and by the early afternoon plenty of sunny spells returned and the latter part of the cruising day was plenty warm enough.
Before setting off Mike walked around to Waitrose for a paper, milk, bread and some fish for tonight. The civic pansies were looking good and the view of the theatre is improved with blue sky!
Then we moved a few metres along to the service point. The tap was incredibly slow - little better than a dribble - so we were probably rather less full than we would have liked when we lost patience and began the journey up the sixteen locks of the Aylesbury Arm.
At first, there is plenty of distance between the locks but towards the top they are increasingly close together.
Just before the marina entrance we were overtaken by a man on a paddle board - he turned around and came back just below the next lock. We failed to displace him!
The hawthorn has rapidly come into blossom and there are some spectacular displays.
Managed a better shot of the date brick in the new wall at Lock 12, with the help of the flash.
Five of the locks are marked as Leave Empty with no clear instruction about whether to leave a paddle up or not. At the first one a boat just ahead had emptied it and waited to close the paddle so we did likewise. However, by the next one they had decided just to leave a paddle up so from then on, so did we.
Below Lock 9 we decided to have lunch as the next three locks are close together. However, finding a mooring spot was not easy and we had to resort to a plank! (In the process, Christine managed to dunk a foot in the water so had a trainer to dry out)
Not long after setting off once more, the sun came out giving us an increasingly pleasant and warm afternoon.
At Lock 7 a couple of young chaps were fishing in the lock - strictly not allowed and they nearly forgot to pull out their lines as we came into the lock. However, as they helped with the gates we said nothing about it! In addition, Christine managed to give away the spinner which was caught on the boat some days ago and which had been spurned by several other fishermen.
At the next lock, both parapets look the worse for wear despite having been substantially re-built not so long ago. Suspicion points towards the heavy goods traffic that we saw using this, and several other equally narrow bridges. On the upside, the highway authority have placed typical safety barriers beside the bricks as a sizable crack suggests that they fear that the wall will collapse again. But what about the boaters below?
The staircase locks were a welcome sight as they tell us that we are now almost at the top.
We promised better pictures of the new houses being built at the junction. The first picture is of the £800K show house and the others look like rabbit hutches. Altogether, a rather ugly development (almost industrial in style) that has pretensions to modernity but which lack any design quality or charm.
At Marsworth Junction we re-joined the main line and continued northwards. Not far and we came to the two Marsworth Locks (not to be confused with the other Marsworth Locks above the junction!).
Shortly after this we called it a day and found an excellent mooring for the night. Might even be able to see the tv satellite!
7.2 Miles - 18 Locks
No comments:
Post a Comment