A quiet Aylesbury Arm

We spent last night in the town basin at Aylesbury and were buffeted by winds. We had managed to get satellite TV reception but once the wind got up signal quality kept coming and going as the dish vibrated and the boat moved. Fortunately, it didn't manage to spoil our viewing.

Rural Aylesbury Arm

This morning the sun was shining and we had delightful journey back up the arm. It is one of the most rural of canals and in early autumn it can look its best with the hedgerows full of sloes, rose hip and crab apples. At Red House Lock the lock-sides were littered with fallen damsons - it made it difficult to avoid slipping.

Rural Aylesbury Arm

The journey from Aylesbury to Marsworth starts by a sludgy section that needs dredging and further up some other pounds are slow going, particularly if, like Albert, your boat has a deep draught. 

The town residents impression of the canal

We stopped at Wilstone for lunch and reached Marsworth around 4 o'clock.  When we went down the arm only three boats passed us, but coming back up the arm we didn't see another boat on the move -what a quiet waterway.

UPDATE:

NB Chance has just passed us going south along the Grand Union Mainline with its new owners.

Aylesbury Arm

After our two nights at Marsworth we left for Aylesbury. We took on water at the junction and then started descending the first of sixteen locks. The first two locks are a staircase and require some thought. The ground paddle is situated a little distance away from the chambers.

Maggie closing a lock gate at Marsworth

Taking on water by the new development at Marsworth

Passing Bates Yard at Puttenham

The locks on the Aylesbury Arm are straightforward but being close together they can be good exercise - still that's the joy of boating.

Anaerobic Digestion Plant near Buckland Lock

We moored up for lunch just above Buckland Lock where there is the massive Arla Super-Dairy which is powered by a biodigester.  It appears the local Parish Council are not too keen on the odours from the plant.

Unusual style of parish council notice

Buckland Lock collapsed in 2013 and took some time to be rebuilt. 

Buckland Lock with rebuilt wall

Warning plate at Buckland Lock

It is interesting that Buckland Lock still appears to have some issues with water permeating the brickwork.

A maintenance gang at work near Bierton

Close to Aylesbury we found the new, at least to us, base of the Aylesbury Canal Society at Circus Fields. A bit different from the old facilities at the town basin when we came here a decade ago.

Aylesbury Canal Society Base

We moored up for the night at the new basin in the town which is now the home to a Travel Lodge, a Waitrose, a college and The Waterside Theatre. The moorings are functional and useful, particularly if you need supplies. Only a couple of boats were moored up and we chose a pontoon near the centre. To bad that our duck friends had left their marks - a lot them. The pontoons appear to be their overnight roosts. Our first job was to scrub the sh*t off - we didn't want to drag it in all over the boat!

Scrubbing the pontoons at Aylesbury Basin

We took on supplies at Waitrose and enjoyed coffee in their cafe. Amazingly we saw a kingfisher in the brook which runs between the store and the theatre. Not often you see a town centre kingfisher.

With Ronnie Barker looking towards The Waterside Theatre

Couldn't resist sitting next to the Ronnie Barker statue. Ronnie started his acting career in Aylesbury. We contemplated going to the theatre but we didn't fancy a tribute to Dirty Dancing!

Marsworth

We planned to travel the Wendover and Aylesbury Arms which we haven't done for some years. However, we were also committed to organising a walk for our Milton Keynes based walking group. The walks are on the first Tuesday of every month. With that in mind when we arrived at Marsworth on Sunday we decided not to go right up the flight to explore the Wendover Arm but moor up alongside Startops reservoir to make a convenient base to explore the Tring Reservoirs. We normally find these moorings busy but at this time of the year they were empty. We moored up in a prime position close to the Bluebells Cafe. Although very few boats were moving, being Sunday lots of families were walking and cycling. Anglers and birdwatchers were also out in force.

Marsworth Mooring near Startops

We stayed there for Monday, reconnoitering the route of our walk. The weather on Monday was fine and sunny and we manged to plan a great route, down the Marsworth flight, along the Aylesbury to Wilstone and then uphill past the Wilstone Reservoir and back down the Wendover Arm to the Grand Junction Arms at Bulbourne. We had great lunch which bode well as this was the lunch stop for the next days walking group. At six miles our route was a good morning's walk and the views from the Wendover Arm across the valley were great. We managed to see Red Kite, Little Egret and lots of wildfowl.

Delightful house near Lock 42

Maggie testing the Outdoor Gym at Wilstone

Golden Clematis at Wilstone

Last night there was a glorious sunset over the reservoirs which pointed to us having good weather today.

Sunset over Startops Reservoir

The weather turned out to be good although it was a little cloudy in the afternoon. So after our six-mile walk on Monday, essentially a rehearsal, today we had the walking group proper and we walked the route again this morning with lunch at the Grand Junction Arms. All worked out well with the day starting with the group having coffee and cakes on-board Albert and finishing at the pub.

This afternoon we had to turn Albert around in preparation for going down the Aylesbury Arm. We went up the six locks to Bulbourne Junction, turned in the Wendover Arm and then came back down the flight to moor up at exactly the same spot as earlier (just two and half hours later). It was still quiet with no boats on the move.

Quite an energetic two days with twelve miles of walks and twelve locks. Tomorrow narrow locks on the Aylesbury Arm.

Marsworth (Startops End)

What different weather there was yesterday, Saturday. The day started with a little rain and there were strong winds all day. We left Aylesbury basin and made our way back towards Marsworth.

Canal Basin Aylesbury

Canal Basin Aylesbury, Albert outside the Inland Revenue (HMRC)

The Aylesbury Canal Society were having their monthly clean up and were litter picking along the stretch up to Lock 15. One of the pounds near Puttenham was very low and Albert scraped along the bottom and lurched a lot. It appears, from talking to the lock keeper at Marsworth, that a stone has caught under a paddle mechanism and it is leaking badly. They will have to get out the stop planks at some stage and declare a stoppage.

The damsons, which are sweet when eaten raw, were a disappointment when stewed. Despite loads of sugar they were bitter and left a difficult after taste. We wonder how they should be cooked.

We lunched at Wilstone at then followed NB Mithra up the flight to Marsworth. They had been delayed fixing a broken tiller. We saw two kingfishers on the way and loads of very plump blackberries.

Climbing the Marsworth Staircase locks

Turning up the mainline we moored up by the reservoirs at Marsworth in a howling gale. We needed a lot of help to avoid being blown across the cut. We battened down the hatches had an evening watching TV, eating a delicious chilli and rice, and drinking red wine. Amazingly we managed to get digital TV reception on the boat for the first time!

Full moon at Startops End

Today we plan to investigate the Wendover Arm for the first time.

Aylesbury

Another great day's autumn boating with our friends Anne & Edward Winter. The weather, at least in the morning, was warm and sunny. We left Marsworth and descended the staircase and then the numerous conventional locks down onto the Vale of Aylesbury. A kingfisher passed us in the lock first pound. Later we saw a red kite and a buzzard.


Staircase lock Marsworth, Aylesbury Arm

On the way we found some more damsons. Anne & Maggie tried the "shake the tree" technique of harvesting the fruit. It appears to work well, especially if you use a boat hook!


Damson damsels! - how to harvest damsons

Below Lock 13 the reeds, that have been there for several years, were very dense and appeared to closed off the channel.


Lots of reeds!

Broughton, and the first of the Aylesbury Locks, have key-protected mechanisms. The new padlocks don't let you remove the key once it is open. This makes for some interesting manoeuvres.


Locked to a padlock at a lock!

Just as we arrived below Lock 16, the last on the arm before Aylesbury, we found NB May Contain Nuts broken down. We towed them back to the basin in Aylesbury where they were to meet the RCR mechanic. If was the first time we had towed with Albert. It was fairly straight forward but because May Contain Nuts was leaving Aylesbury, she was towed stern first. It appears that they have a cooling water problem. RCR arrived later and were still working on the problem at 9.30PM.




Towing NB May Contain Nuts towards Aylesbury

We we welcomed into the basin by the Aylesbury Canal Society and allocated an overnight mooring by their clubhouse. We had a good meal at the National Trust owned Kings Head in the town. Good choice of beer, pleasant ambiance and good food.

Easter 2007 on the Aylesbury Arm

Took a trip down the Grand Union to Marsworth and then to Aylesbury. Weather was glorious throughout and the welcome at the Aylesbury Cruising Club was as warm as ever. Took Patches, our 14 year-old male cat, with us for the first time. It all went very well since he isn't very active and therefore is easy to control. He enjoyed sleeping on our bed and waking us up in the mornings.

We left Yardley Gobion on Tuesday April 3rd and moored up on Wednesday night at Campbell Park, Central Milton Keynes. Found that one of the domestic batteries had failed, and the calorifier was leaking! Couldn't do much about the latter but with the help of our neighbour Anthony Cross we replaced the battery via the chandlers at Whilton. The calorifier leak meant Steve had to bale out the "dry" bilge every day. Useful things towels as Ford Prefect pointed out to Arthur Dent in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

After replacing the battery on Wednesday morning and checking it was charging correctly we made it to one of our favourite moorings at Old Linslade that evening.

Old Linslade

On Thursday we travelled south with NB Keeping Up With The Jones. We've recently enjoyed veiwing their web site. We stopped at Leighton Buzzard (Tesco) for supplies but they travelled on. At Grove lock we picked up with NB Tyro who used to moor at Fenny Stratford and had just begun their "continuous cruising". That evening we moored up at Marsworth and enjoyed good food at the White Lion. On the Friday we made our way down the arm to Aylesbury. Joined by two Wyvern Shipping hire boats en route. Both crews were from one family. We mooored up on near the Inland Revenue in Aylesbury and found the Jones boat also moored up.

Narrow locks on the Aylesbury Arm

Aylesbury basin

On the return we followed the Wyvern pair for some time but they stopped for lunch and we didn't.

Reedy section of the Aylesbury Arm

Mooored up again at Marsworth on Sunday. Saw two steam traction engines outside the Red Lion.

Steam at the Red Lion, Marsworth

We were tempted to stay at the Red Lion (good real ale) but they were not doing evening meals so we walked up the main line to the the Grand Junction at Bulborne for a good Sunday roast. Very popular on a warm Easter Sunday evening. Spectacular transit of a hot air balloon.

Hot air balloon at Bulborne

On Monday 9th we travelled north in company with Still Tai who had also visited Aylesbury. Still Tai is a two year-old Lees 60ft sailaway that is still being fitted out by the owners. When they visited Aylesbury some of the family stayed in the Holiday Inn. They normally mooor at Leighton Buzzard not far from the Tesco store. The boat name means "STILL Thinking About It"! Glad I asked.

On Tuesday we moored up just outside Great Linford near to the lakes at Stantonbury. Took a walk down to the Great Ouse and the ruined church. Idyllic in the warm evening sun.

Great Linford

We got back to Yardley on Wednesday 11th after a leisurely journey back and lunch at Cosgrove. Patches was pleased to get home and investigate the garden. Now Steve will have to fix the calorifier!