It was a bright sunny day as we set off in good time. It remained this way all morning but gradually the forecast clouds arrived and the afternoon was not so good for photos.
Today was all about locks - 16 in the end plus one swing bridge and very few pounds too long to walk if one chose to do so.
The swing bridge, just after Pitstone Wharf, is remarkably easy to move - it good with a bit of grease to make it amazingly easy. Unlike some of the notorious back breakers on the Leeds and Liverpool.
Ivinghoe Lock and still bright blue sky. Really not sure what has happened to the Whipsnade Chalk Lion - we failed again to spot it.
A little later we passed this boat : Pagan and Proud. What religious significance do the ornaments have?
We shared a couple of locks with two longterm liveaboards. They were not planning to get to Leighton Buzzard until Thursday and, in any event, stopped just above the next lock for water.
With all three of us working the boat and locks we made good progress even though almost all of them were set against us.
The house converted from a former church alongside the eponymous lock is up for sale. It has always struck us as one of the better conversions which are not always easy to undertake, involving a lot of compromises between the original needs of a place of worship and a modern place in which to live. Current guide price : £760,000.
The Grove pub at the next lock has installed new parasols in its outdoor area - all black. Somehow they look rather sinister in this 'down' position either anonymous hooded monks or black crows!
We moored at the short term spaces outside Tesco in Leighton Buzzard. Whilst Andrew popped to the supermarket for a newspaper and some milk, Christine finished preparing her latest soup: delicious mushroom. (Mike was not popular for describing the thick mixture as it came our from the fridge - it was made yesterday - as grey sludge!)
As Mike was tying up the boat a man came charging down on his bicycle to berate Mike about a contribution he had made to an online canal forum yesterday - or was alleged to have made. The 'offence' was to report the circumstances we had found at the hotspot areas which are currently the subject of consultation regarding possible changes to mooring restrictions. The man, whose language was colourful, seemed to think that Mike had written something that was mist definitely not in the actual text!
After lunch we continued much as before with a longer pound down to Soulbury Three Locks. Just after leaving the flight someone on the bank shouted to warn us that a 'barge' was causing an obstruction. In fact it was a narrowboat which had drifted right across as a result of one of its mooring pins being pulled out of the soft ground. We dropped Andrew ashore into the space between the line of otherwise properly moored boats and he attached a line to the bow and pulled it back to the bank where he hammered in the pin as far as it would go and re-tied the mooring line. As we continued we could see that there was someone on one of the other boats - perhaps he had not seen what had happened to his neighbour?
It was by now quite a grey sky but we continued through Stoke Hammond Lock and then along the longer pound to Water Eaton where we moored just short of Fenny Stratford and where there was a line of sight to the tv satellite. before this point was a long line of trees and although there are no leaves yet we did not fancy our chances of a signal through the branches.
15.2 Miles - 6 Locks
No comments:
Post a Comment