Wildlife Abundance

With a look out of the portholes this morning we were greeted with a sharp frost and clear blues skies..

We had a Heron trying to get his breakfast right on our stern..

We set off with "smoke on the water" and as we turned a corner we followed a hire boat which was a wide beam..

He was going so slow trying to guide it through the branches of the Grand Union, we had to keep knocking Derwent6 out of gear to go slow enough.. In the end he decided to try and pull over and let us by, but as we got along side him his bow came over hard and we missed him by inches with full power..  We got to the first lock at Leighton Buzzard and it was in our favour... 

We got to the Tesco's stop here at 9.30am and Al and Thomas got the weekly shopping in a couple of trolley's and wheeled them right outside Derwent6.

Loaded with food, listing to one side and wallet lighter, we set off again..
We got to Grove Lock with ease and were still on our own so we pushed on..

We still hadn't passed a boat and at Church Lock and Slapton Lock with Thomas helping we were making good ground..

With it so quiet the wild life was in abundance..

We passed the lion on the hill and the sun was in our faces, just bliss!

We got through Ivinghoe Locks and soon got to Pitstone, where we had had enough for the day..

We sat in the sunshine with some nibbles out in the cratch before watching a film in the evening..

Cruise snooze

Del got up early leaving Al and Thomas still in bed and set off as we had no locks for the first eight miles.. We soon crossed the Great Ouse Aqueduct and then started to border Milton Keynes.

The sun was out but there was a slight northerly wind which put a slight chill to things.. As we passed Wolverton you pass this lovely mural on the wall.. 

We had passed Great Linford and got to Eaglestone (seven miles) before Thomas surfaced..

We spotted these fella's catching up on the daily news, and mum helping them to read it!!!

As we approached Fenny Stratford lock with its unusual swing bridge in the middle we were lucky enough to find it open with a boat waiting for us, and even luckier was that they let us go out leaving the gates open as they were turning round, Touch!
It started to get warmer as we got out to Stoke Hammond lock..

This is always a very pretty lock and well looked after.. As we were going so well we decided to push on to The Soulbury Three Locks and our luck was still running..

We had followed a boat up but the lock keeper had seen us and got the other two locks ready for us so we could just go straight up with ease.. a nice guy too, and a boater..

He had given us a tip off that the hire boats for the week would be coming through here between 3.00pm and 4.00pm so moor up tight as they aren't always told about slowing down for moored boats.. we found a spot and chained up.. 

Well twelve boats passed us, and six were on a mission, two never made the corner in front of us, and two hit the bridge behind us... but one thing they all had in common they were all enjoying themselves on such a pleasant sunny day.. Del got to work on the brasses again this time he did under the mushrooms which don't get done through the winter months..

Al finished the day cooking a lovely Roast Chicken dinner and with Thomas on board there was not much left of it all.. Another long day tomorrow so a early night for us..

Should we stay or should we go now

It was a lovely morning and it was decision time.. Thomas and Al were having a bit of a lay in, and Del was up and could have gone as we had no locks for a few hours, but he made the decision to stay..  Thomas and Al surfaced at 9.00am and we ended up sitting and watching the London Marathon on telly, and while we watched we were passed by Adam and Adrian on n.b Briar Rose......we also spotted Doug & James (nb chance) waving in the crowd!

Del ran the London Marathon in 1986 and completed it in a time of 3 hours 16 minutes, so it was fun bringing back the memories of that special day..

Afterwards we all decided to have Sunday Lunch up The Barley Mow pub as the band last night were so good and they were going to do an acoustic session from 2.00pm till 4.30pm in the afternoon. We found a nice table and ordered just before the crowds started to turn up.. We had a lovely lunch, highly recommended.

Two of the guys came on with guitars and played all the classics and we all ended up having a good singalong, a real fun afternoon..

We got back to Derwent6 at around 5.30pm and then chilled for a hour before watching a movie with a big bar of chocolate......

A Surprise Beer and Rock Festival

We got up a bit later this morning so we could chill out with some breakfast before hitting the locks..

We saw two boats going down in front of us so knew we would have to go down on our own, but at least with Thomas there was three of us..

We got to the third lock when the two boats in front of us met a boat coming up, so we had a little wait and a hire boat cast off behind us.. We let them go in the lock and then followed them in.. They were in a rush so we soon got down the flight and were able to moor up at the bottom for water..

We then took a steady cruise on through Yardley where the lambs were in abundance, never seen so many..

We got to Cosgrove bridge and couldn't believe how busy it was, then we spotted a poster on a lamppost.. It was the beer festival weekend at The Barley Mow pub and they had some music going on as well, we hadn't done our homework..

We went through Cosgrove lock and paired up with another boat.

We both wanted to stop and there was just one gap we could see, but luckily we both managed to fit in it, all be it a bit shallow, but we were in....

The first thing Del did was set the telly up as he wanted to see Arsenal in the F A Cup semi finial.. It was nerve racking, but they won on penalties to Wigan..  Then it was a quick shower and then out to the pub.. When we got there it was packed and the queue for the bar was horrendous, but for the ales it was ok, a good tactic for people to buy the ales we thought.. We found a spot right in front of the band, and when they started my good it was loud, but so bloody good..

The band were local and called Little Pigs  and it sounded like they had played rock all their life, but their main forte was Pink Floyd and how good they were at it.. This got everyone in the mood to drink more and by the end of the night everyone was pissed on ales, good job we had Thomas with us to keep us a responsible Auntie and Uncle, we're not good on our own...

We strolled back to Derwent6 and we all fell into bed late...

Oh! Whats Bruerne

Just a look out of the porthole told us we had to move today.....

As we didn't have any locks today Del set off with Al and Thomas still sleeping to the slight purr of the Beta 50 and the flow of water running down the sides of Derwent6. We moved through Bugbrooke with just the sheep and lambs watching us..

We made our way through some lovely scenery and as the sunshine started to poke through we saw a few ducks with their duckings all on their first cruise.. 

It has been very quiet still and we never passed a boat till we got to Gayton when suddenly we passed three...

We took it lovely and steady past Gayton Junction and headed up towards Blisworth..

By now the sun was out fully as we made our way towards the tunnel... As we approached it a boat was coming out and warned us of how wet it was inside..  So hat, coats and full steam ahead we dived in..

We passed a boat with ease in the middle but yep we got very wet!!!! Good job it was lovely and warm when we came out and Derwent6 dried off in the sun. We must have timed it perfect because we had the pick of the moorings at Stoke Bruerne, so managed to get Derwent6 in a position where we could get a good telly signal as Thomas wanted to watch his programme tonight..
After a cup of tea we walked down to the museum but was disappointed to find it closed, yep closed on a weekend before the Easter weekend, strange!! When we asked about, it turned out they were getting it ready for Easter, even though they had all winter to do that.. They were losing bucket loads as it was very busy here.. We walked down to The Navigation pub and sat outside in the sunshine where we had some lunch..

We popped into The Boat pub to see if any music was on (as they do sometimes on a Friday night), but our luck run out there as well, so it was back to Derwent6, plenty of music there.....

We soon all fell asleep in the sunshine out in the cratch of Derwent6. When we come to life again Del got to work on the brasses and Thomas did some studying while Al read her book.. In the evening Thomas watched his programme on telly while Del and Al caught up on the world news... Later we all listened to music playing our favourite hits, before bed...