We set of on Sunday morning (11/07/2021) and passed some unusual boats. There seemed to be a lot more live-aboard boaters on the Grand Union Canal and a lot of wide beam boats which are restricted by their width as to where they can go.
We saw several of these converted lifeboats.
Our first lock was Cosgrove Lock 21 followed by the Iron Trunk Aqueduct, which had an unexpected drop on our starboard bow!
The Iron Trunk (aka Cosgrove Aqueduct) is a navigable cast iron trough aqueduct that carries the Grand Union Canal over the River Great Ouse, on the borders between Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire to the northwest of Milton Keynes. Formed of two cast iron trough spans, with a single central masonry pier, it is the world's first wide canal cast iron trough aqueduct.
We continued through the much maligned Milton Keynes which looked quite reasonable and green from the Grand Union Canal.
There was lots of building work and redevelopment going on along the canal.
We had an audience in the Red Lion pub at the next lock where we had to fathom out how to open the swing bridge over the lock.
And an even bigger bunch of gongoozlers at the 3 Locks Pub. On the third lock a young lad on a holiday boat let his windlass slip and it swung round violently and hit him on the head. His father walked him down to the pub with a tea towel pressed to his head to call the paramedics.
”That’s what killed the lock keeper at Mapledorum near Maidenhead”’ said a bystander. “Windlass swung round when the lock paddle broke loose and killed him stone dead”!
Our Pearson’s Guide says that on a hard day a narrowboat crew need plying with lots of mugs of strong tea, or, if the sun is over the yardarm, something stronger. They go on to say that they have noticed some particularly low yardarms on the canal network!
Some of the locks had nice new gates, but still took some effort to open.
We liked the idea of an Ouzel Valley Meander.
We passed the base of the prolific holiday hire boat company, Wyvern Shipping.
We moored up in Leighton Buzzard on moorings which said 2 hours only permitted for shopping, but as it was Sunday night and the massive Tesco and LIDL next to us were closed, we felt justified in staying the night.
Vera was quite happy there and we used a nearby SPAR in a Shell garage to shop for essentials.
Steve put on his shopping outfit for the short walk to the shop.
We watched another episode of The Handmaid’s Tale, Series 2. Elsewhere there was mounting excitement over the looming final of Euro 2020 at Wembley. The news reported that fans were drinking in pubs from 10am in order to reserve their places for the match at 8pm.
We were falling asleep watching the football so we went to bed. We didn’t know that Italy beat England on penalties in Euro 2020 until we woke up on Monday morning.
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