Monday 3 October 2016

Blue sky and sunshine but it is cold – I looked out of the window and there is mist rolling along the canal.  Autumn is here!

We have seven locks to do as soon as we leave Stoke Bruerne so I went ahead to get the first lock ready.  A boat had just gone through going the same way.  Once through the first lock I went to help the guy in front close the bottom gates.  He is in a small barge but is too wide for us to share a lock with him.  He asked if we would go ahead and as we went through would we open a paddle on the top gates to start the refill for him!  Nobody has asked me to do that but I agreed!

As we were approaching the third lock another boat left their mooring and came into the lock with us.  The lady asked if I could talk her through what to do as they had only picked the boat up yesterday and she didn’t have a clue what she was doing.  So we set about getting through the next five locks – I hope the fact that we were opening a paddle for the guy behind hasn’t confused her too much!  She was good company and we had an hour and a half running backwards and forwards to set the next lock and go back to let the boats out of the lock behind.

Once at the bottom of the flight we stopped to empty the loos, get rid of the rubbish and fill the water tank.

We bumped into them again at the next lock so went through with them.  We then carried on to Wolverton where we stopped to go shopping.  We stopped here last year and didn’t feel happy about staying there so once we had restocked the fridge we chugged on.

We remembered that last year we had stopped in a rural spot where the canal meanders away from the outskirts of Milton Keynes.  This is where we waited for the CRT guy last year when we had a problem with the wrong oil being in the new gearbox.  We stopped in the same place again as there were a few other boats there.

It’s a beautiful day so I went for a long walk.  By 8pm it was getting really chilly so we lit the fire and had a cosy night.

A misty start to the day in Stoke Bruerne.

It's lovely along this stretch of the canal.  Autumn looks like it is putting in an appearance too.

Looking down the flight just before we were joined by the couple in Wychwood. See how full the locks are - the water is flowing over the top of the gates.

Goodbye Wychwood - happy cruising!

Crazy where some people leave their boats???

The aqueduct over the River Great Ouze - they still talk about joining it to the Grand Union - hope they do one day.

I didn't manage to get a very good photo but this blackbird had a completely grey head!

Running man at Wolverton.

The remains of St Peters.

Moored just outside Milton Keynes.

And the sun goes down.