To London day's 17 and 18

We left the mooring on the outskirts of Milton Keynes (in an area called Wolverton) on Tuesday. It was extremely blustery and I wasn't convinced it would be a good day of cruising. Being 65foot and quite high in the water, the boat is prone to gliding about the canal at a mere whisper of wind. However, we decided to give it a go, learning to 'work with the wind' (my ridiculous saying I pester Leigh with) and see how she fares.

With Leigh on the tiller, she did surprisingly well. Giving moored boats plenty of room...

so as not to crash into them and riding the throttle we managed to pass the whole of Milton Keynes without any hiccups. The route was rather pleasant as the town is below the canal and so the views are mainly of open parks and tendered woods. The bridges however were awful, that is to say not aesthetically pleasing or well designed. I thought 1983 was a great year (Papa Bear shall confirm) however not for the designing and building of concrete bridges. How can they get it so wrong.

We had our first and only lock of the day at Fenny Stratford, which we shared with the same boat we did the flight at Braunston with, Bottom of Arden.

We moored at the opposite outskirt of MK near Bletchley. 'The' Bletchley park. I am humbled.

We didn't hang around, the next day we were off again, stopping at a boatyard for the facilities and headed on towards Leighton Buzzard.

We shared the locks at Soulbury Three locks 26-24 with a lovely couple who have a beautiful lurcher, with fur like silk. She like Deila was going a bit loopy with all the wind, running up and down the tow path. Obviously not at the same time. Delia was tucked up indoors when the lurcher was lurking. We stopped for food at the canal-side Tesco in Leighton Buzzard and by the next two locks we'd had enough.

The route from here skirts many tiny villages and looks out to the Chilterns. It is delightful. As this is a broad section, there are plenty of good looking barges and wide beams...

We passed a boat's permanent mooring with these...

sadly it is time to think about our heating again.

Today we reached our first lock and shared with a hire boater. They were winding and returning back on themselves so when we reached the next lock we waited for another boat to share with. Alas it was the lurcher and co. who had teamed up with another boating friend and were working the locks together so we carried on alone.

Lock after lock with a quater of a mile in between each.

I got it down working the gates and paddles.

We got to Marsworth bridge 130 by 4pm and took an hour out to relax.

At 5pm we were on our way again passing a beautiful thatched cottage just before the Aylesbury Arm...

and headed through Marsworth Locks - 7 in the space of a mile.

It was here that Leigh noticed the worn stone...

from years of people standing astride working the ground paddle.

The surrounding view was bliss as the sun began to go down.

We reached the final lock and passing the Wendover Arm...

and the Toll House, now someone's fabulous pad...

We came to a beautiful wooded stretch to moor up just before Tring Summit Level. It was dark within 5 minutes of mooring up so we time it just right. 16 locks today and they were big and heavy - let's just say we will sleep well tonight.