A Very Good Start

We picked Daisy up at lunchtime and she immediately felt like home from home. We’re travelling in the same direction as our last trip, so we repeated our route through the three locks at Soulbury …

… before mooring near Bridge 106 at Stoke Hammond.

The biggest difference is that I had the helm for much of the afternoon, and did a pretty good job! Don who came with us to begin with encouraged me to steer and I must have felt more relaxed because I finally got the hang of it. Having said that, Chris steered through the locks while I manned the windlass, but we went through with another boat so we shared the work.

Soon afterwards we moored and went for a walk to stretch our legs. The hawthorn is blossoming in abundance, but there were lots of other white flowers like cow parsley, white dead nettle, garlic mustard and even the dandelion clocks.

And there were sheep …

… inevitably some sheep bottoms …

… and also Daisy’s!

After dinner we sat listening to the sound of sheep in the field and a cuckoo calling, pleased we’d covered the 4 miles we’d planned.

Next day rain was forecast later so we got a good start, taking turns to steer through the locks at Stoke Hammond and Fenny Stratford then into Milton Keynes. It started to get showery so we stopped for a sandwich in the hope it would pass, then cracked on, past the winding hole where we turned last trip and Campbell Park to new territory.

After covering about 7.5 miles, we moored up at Willen Lake where we had planned to walk, but heavy rain threatened and instead we just took a short walk in search of a frog.

There is lots of public art in Milton Keynes and this stretch of the towpath hosts the Gyosei Art Trail, funded when the site of a Japanese School was redeveloped. The eight pieces relate to Japan, the canal and natural history and we came across this little chap sitting on a bench. Entitled “What lies beneath”, the frog is sitting, peacefully unaware of the food chain below in the canal … but he did look like he wanted some company … and we are allowed to hug again now!

Chris was delighted to be back in time for a mug of tea and LFC’s final game of the season v Crystal Palace that he was able to watch on his phone … even more delighted when they won 2-0, so Champions League football again next season.

I was surprised how few snaps I took today, just a couple of fallen soldiers …

… and a trio of bridges.

Map