On Monday morning (12/07/2021) we realised that we were approaching London when we saw a Fullers pub by the lock.
A heron was perched on the cill in the lock looking for stranded fish.
And it flew out to watch us chug into the lock. I recalled an old joke from my mates brother who said “They gave me a right bashing last night, left me senseless”. “Who”? we asked naively. “Fuller, Smith & Turner” he chortled, referring to the brewers at Griffin Brewery.
We had to pull over and moor up for diesel as we had to wait for the arrival of a temporary stand-in at the merina as the regular manager had to stay at home and isolate as his daughter had proved positive for COVID-19.
We finally got our diesel and continued through 9 heavy double locks.
We passed a site with pods and an airstream caravan which implored us to “Give Glamping a Go”.
Some of the locks had lock cottages that were built around the time of the First World War.
Vera looked on as she has to be tied up at locks to prevent her from following Steve over the precarious walkways on the lock gates. We don’t want her to fall into a turbulent filling or emptying lock.
Despite the clouds the rain held off today.
There were some nice long term moorings with views across to the Chiltern Hills.
We moored up at Cook’s Wharf and an old friend of Steve, who lives in Ivinghoe came for a cup of tea on the boat. He arranged to pick us up later for a tour of the area and an evening meal in a pub.
Martin and Corrall picked us up in the evening and took us to see Pitstone Windmill.
It is now defunct and looked after by the National Trust.
Pitstone Windmill is an early post mill so, unlike similar mills in East Anglia, it was turned to face the wind on top of a huge wooden post using a tail pole instead of a fantail or shuttered sails.
.The date of 1627 is the earliest of several dates found inscribed in the woodwork of Pitstone Windmill, although it is generally thought that the mill was built earlier. Remarkably the mill served its community for three centuries until a freak storm in 1902 caused extensive damage..
We drove through the quintessential English village of Aldbury which has featured in several films, The Avengers, Morse and Midsomer Murders. The old stocks are still by the duck pond.
We had a great meal in the Bridgewater Arms. It had been a challenge to find a pub or restaurant doing food on a Monday night so it was kind of Corrall to drive us to Little Gaddesden and drop us back to the boat afterwards.
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