Onwards and Upwards.

Tuesday 31st July 2012.
Cosgrove to Stoke Bruerne.
7 Miles 8 Locks.

I worked through Cosgrove lock on my own this morning letting Jayne save her energy for the Stoke Bruerne Flight which will raise us 56 feet later on in the morning, a boat had gone up about ten minutes before and left one of the top gates open which slowed things down a bit, but the rain was holding off.

Two hours later and we were at the service point at the bottom of the Stoke locks, there were three boats already on the landing stage, the boat furthest from the lock was being washed, yes, washed on the water point, fortunately there are four or five taps along there, the next boat was a hireboat filling with water, then came a broadbeam boat. After securing No Direction I noticed that the man from the broadbeam boat was emptying a large plastic container at the sanitary station, he then carried the empty container back to his boat, I realised then that he had a self pumpout kit and was slowly pumping the contents of his toilet holding tank into the plastic container and emptying it at the sanitary point, to say that he was creating a pong doesn't cover it, Jayne was busy spraying fresh air around, I think his pump out machine broke down because he cleared off, but not before giving the device a good wash out in the canal !! 

Our water tank was full and I was just rolling the hose up when two young lads from the hireboat walked past towards the first lock with their windlasses, sharing seven double locks with a hireboat and a fit young crew is not to be missed so the hose got stowed quickly and into the lock we went.

We completed the flight without a problem, considering the steerer of the hireboat was a first timer he handled the boat well, even managing to keep it to one side in the lock while we went in.

We're now at Stoke Bruerne for two days as tomorrow is Jayne's birthday, so a small celebration with friends in the Navigation is planned.

Back to Rain.

Monday 30th July 2012.
The Globe Inn to Cosgrove.
17.5 Miles 5 Locks.

Volunteer Lockie's on Soulbury locks this morning, two this time so we had little to do, at the next, Stoke Hammond Lock we were third in a queue but we were soon down and heading for Fenny Stratford.

Leaving Stoke Hammond Lock.

We've had two huge downpours today, each one only lasted fifteen minutes but it really came down, I didn't have a waterproof with me when the first one started and Jayne had to pass a jacket out to me but I was ready for the second one. 

The last lock of the day was Fenny Stratford, the lock only drops the Canal thirteen inches but it has a swing bridge between the top and bottom gates which makes it a bit awkward, today the bridge had been left in the open position.

Next to the lock are rubbish bins provided for the use of boaters, when we went past last week the bins were overflowing, today there weren't many bins left.

At least it hasn't damaged the Water tap or Elsan disposal.

Tonight we are moored at Cosgrove again and heading for Stoke Bruerne tomorrow.

Back to the Globe Inn

Saturday/Sunday 28/29th July 2012.
Linslade to The Globe Inn.
3 Miles 1 Lock.

After a busy Saturday helping on Nutfield and Raymond we decided against following them back to the Globe after the Festival and stuck with our original plan of moving on Sunday morning, we needed to stop a Tesco's again as Jayne had decided she would like a Kindle which she is now working out how to use.

We're now moored back at The Globe until Monday morning hoping to take advantage of their 2 Sunday Roasts for £9.95 if eating after 5pm.

P.S. Just back from our 2 for £9.95 Sunday dinners and all we can say is we were not overly impressed.

Linslade.

Thursday/Friday 26/27th July 2012.
The Globe Inn to Linslade.
3 Miles 1 Lock.

Our plan to stay moored at The Globe Inn  for a second night collapsed about 3 pm on Thursday when the urge to move on got the better of us, off we went and stocked up at Tesco's Leighton Buzzard mooring on the two hour shoppers moorings.

Then on to Linslade where we'll be for the weekend, firstly though we went up to Grove Lock where there's room to turn, not really a winding hole, more of a short narrow arm leading off the main canal, I nosed the boat in, the stern swung around and started to reverse out, halfway through the manouver a crew coming down the lock opened all the paddles, the rush of water made a three point turn a ten point one.

We found our allocated mooring and secured the boat, that's it until Sunday morning.

Moored Outside A Pub.

Wednesday 25th July 2012.
Stoke Hammond to The Globe Inn.
3.25 Miles 3 Locks.

First job today was the short cycle ride to Stoke Hammond Post Office, fortunately the power was back on and I was able to send the recorded letter.

We stopped at the water point at the bottom of the three Soulbury Locks (amond 3 to the old boatmen), the locks will raise us just over 20 feet to the next pound, the water point here is one of the better ones, clean with trimmed grass and exellent pressure, topped up the tank in next to no time.

A fine example.

Water tank full, waiting for the lock gates to open.

We had no less than three volunteer lockies on the locks today and they were very good, opening the paddles slowly and evenly so as not to bang the boat around, always a problem with one boat in a double lock.

A lockie on each lock beam.

We all have to stay cool in this heat.

We arrived at The Globe Inn Linslade and luckily dropped straight into a mooring space, we'll probably stay here until Friday morning as we're shaded from the afternoon sun by trees on the opposite bank.

Moored outside the Gobe Inn, might pop in later !!

The boat moored behind us is the Cookie Boat, it's a scorching hot day, Will and Michelle are inside the boat with the oven going full blast cooking ready for the weekend, they really do earn their money.

The Plan Goes Wrong.

Monday/Tuesday, 23/24th July 2012.
Cosgrove to Stoke Hammond.
14.5 Miles 2 Locks.

We got going about 10 o'clock on Monday, first stop was Wolverton for shopping, when we got back to No Direction one of the local boat hippies started chatting, he was working his way around to ask for a lift but I saw it coming and all he got was a drink of water.

The Canal wriggles it's way around Milton Keynes, once famous for having Concrete Cows, there's even an area marked on the OS map named Concrete Cows (map ref SP 822 398), the only other thing I know about Milton Keynes is that they sell an huge number of replacement car tyres there due to the amount of traffic islands.

Monday afternoon after a few hours in the sun we decided to call it a day and moored at Simpson close to bridge 92, mooring OK but we could hear a bit of traffic noise from the A5.

We have friends moored at Kings Bromley Marina who have their boat for sale with Great Hayward Boat Sales as they're moving to Scotland, the boat's been for sale for over 8 months  but last weekend it sold, the boat will be gone and our friends will have left for Scotland before we return from this trip, and we have the spare set of keys, no problem Jayne said on the phone, we'll post them recorded delivery.

So after checking the location of a suitable Post Office, we planned to moor by bridge 106, Stoke Hammond and I would cycle into the village and use the Post Office which is also the village shop, so that's what we did, all going well until I walked into the shop and found it quite dark, there was a power cut, not just the shop but the whole village, so, no Post Office services today and the freezers and fridges were off as well, power will be back on at 5 o'clock but the Post Office section will be closed by then, looks like we'll be staying here tonight  so I can zip back in the morning. 

Staff at Willowbridge Marina wait for us to pass

before craning a boat in.

Up it goes.

Hood, a famous wooden narrowboat moored at Willowbridge

The wider the Canal gets, the wider the boats get,

this Dutch Barge is at Stoke Hammond.

That's Better, A Bit Of Sun.

Friday/Saturday/Sunday, 20/21/22nd July 2012.Moored at Cosgrove.

We've been at Cosgrove for the Buckingham Canal Society Festival and the weather has behaved itself, both days have been very warm and dry, both days also saw plenty of visitors, especially Sunday.

As we are now the greatest cycling nation on earth thanks to Bradley Wiggins and Co, the first picture is of bikes for sale outside Cosgrove Park Caravan Site shop, for £99.99p there's a lot there, lights, front hub brake, carrier, stand however, they didn't look very strong or straight and had a nasty cheap Chinese look about them, can't really see Bradley on one, as with everything you get what you pay for.

Some of the long term mooring along the Canal look more like

 rubbish tips, but with a bit of effort they could look like this one,

neat grass and flower boxes.

This is the Milton Keynes play boat, don't go near it as it's

usually full of screaming kids.

All made with his chainsaw and he sold most of it.

The picture above is the Cookie Boat owned by Will and Michelle, they make and sell home made cookies, muffins, flapjacks as well as tea and coffee, they had a busy weekend as you can see, the cookie's are only one side of the business as they also trade as the Graphics Boat, producing stickers and labels, they've made us some stickers which we're pleased with and Piston Broke are also happy customers.

The Fudge boat had a good weekend as they left late Sunday afternoon

 to buy more sugar to make more Fudge for next weekend.

This picture (poor quality) shows three German visitors to the Festival experiencing the Boatmans cabin on Narrowboat Raymond, fortunately for them (and us) one of the volunteer helpers, Roger, he's the one on the left, spent fifteen years working in Germany and speaks fluent German although I think he may have struggled to find German words to describe the intricacies of a English wooden narrowboat.