The first day of June and another sunny morning and a quick turn round Waterhall Park. We were surprised how different it looked compared with our last visit in October …
… and even how warm, so decided I should keep Mr Hayes company …
… and there was no time like the present … only to be caught in the act!
We made our way back, enjoying the sunshine. Just a couple of things we noticed … a pipe bridge so bright we don’t know how we haven’t noticed it before …
… and another fuel boat moored up – easy when you know what to look for!
Realising we’d not take many pics of the actual hard work, we took a few at a Stoke Hammond lock as we had it to ourselves.
At Soulbury, help was at hand from David and John, Canal Trust volunteers who man the triple lock to try to save water, so we actually had to wait a while for boats to come down before we could up, but at least we had help with the locks.
I sat at the front for a while, surprised how quiet it was and watched the world float by, listening to the gentle plink of water. We’ve seen lots of people sitting in the front, usually the women, with the men huddled round the tiller, but since there’s just two of us, we usually sit companionably at the back together. I saw a couple of boats from the Leighton Buzzard Navy, as we’ve heard Wyvern boats described, starting out on their holidays, just as we return from ours.
It was soon time to moor up for the night, leaving just a short distance and one lock to navigate in the morning. Dinner tonight is truly gourmet, Tesco tinned vegetable curry with potato wedges and Haloumi! We have a great little freezer compartment in the fridge on Daisy and brought four frozen home cooked stew dinners with us which we’ve mixed up with sausages, pies, pasta and an evening out in the pub. We’ve managed to buy groceries on the way in 7-11 type stores where milk and bread is easy but fresh food is harder to find.
As I was getting this ready, I noticed a well turned calf outside the window, and found Chris recording some video for his next camera club audio visual.
Our trip has turned out just as planned with a total distance of 72 miles, 28 locks and 2 tunnels (since we did them both ways!). We’ve certainly found a pace that suits us, around 6 miles a day, which gives plenty of time to take everything in our stride, stop to explore and walk and not feel we are on a mission. We’re getting better at judging angles and speeds and which bit of bank looks tricky to moor close to. We’ve experienced a tunnel, a flight of locks and a fouled propeller and all were fine, but are mindful getting on and off as while a slip into the canal is unlikely to be fatal, it certainly wouldn’t be pleasant.
All the housekeeping was quite straight forward and we only had a couple of minor bumps along the way. Even though we’ve had the coldest and wettest May in ages, the weather perked up halfway through our trip and the last few days have been glorious. The towpaths are so pretty with the white hawthorn and cow parsley and fields have been full of buttercups, clover and speedwell. I’m not sure another time of year would be so lovely.
I’m sure we’ll give this another go sometime … maybe Daisy south to Kings Langley since our map covers this direction too … or another waterway entirely!
Needless to say, there’s been a fair bit of downtime too and I found some great books to keep me company, a couple of autobiographical accounts, firstly Waterways by Jasper Winn who was sponsored by the Canal & River Trust to travel 1,000 miles round canals by narrowboat, bike and kayak to explore their history and present day life and write a book, then Afloat by Danie Couchman, an account of her six years living on the water, mainly as a constant traveller on a narrowboat but also on a mooring in a wider boat. After that I lightened up a bit and read a couple of novels, Three Women and a Boat by Anne Youngson about Eve and Sally who collide on a towpath and agree to drive Anastasia’s narrowboat to Chester and The Cosy Canal Boat Dream by Christie Barlow which was a feel good romance set in a canal side marina and have just started Murder on the Oxford Canal, investigated by DI Hillary Greene who lives on a narrowboat.
I also brought a bag of yarn scraps and a crochet hook and in odd moments have been making a kaleidoscope of butterflies as a summer makeover for my craft tree once we get home. I’ve got a dozen in the bag and it’s going to look lovely!
We’ve been checking out boat names all trip, and while many are fairly standard, a few have floated to the top of our list
We’re so pleased we’ve been afloat again, seen all we had hoped to see last trip … and more … thank you Daisy!
Off Travelling Together 