Lurking at Milton Keynes

Friday 22 June

Another wet start, so we had a think about our cruising plans. We’d originally aimed to be going down the Northampton Arm next Tuesday, so as to be at Ferry Meadow near Peterborough by the weekend of 7/8 July to meet up with Graeme, Cathy and Daniel. Since the rain keeps falling and the Nene remains closed, it’s not clear that that is going to be possible. Even after the Nene reopens, we’ll want to give it a few days to settle down before heading on down. Meadow mooring can be tricky on a falling river, as we know from last year’s experience.

The other constraint is our booked crossing from Salter’s Lode to Denver on the Saturday following, the 14th. Working back from that, we need to be at Gayton Junction on Tuesday 2 July, so as to start down the Northampton Arm the following day and so make a steady rather than frantic trip down river. In that sense we have plenty of time in hand. It’s just very frustrating that we haven’t yet had a chance to meet our grandson.

As the rain had eased by the time we’d done this, we set off from the 48 hour mooring, winded the boat at the first winding hole, and moored on the towpath side between bridges 82 and 82A We can sit here for another 12 days if we want, though shortage of water will compel a move long before that.

We had yet another walk into MK Centre, posted two porthole doilies that Sheila had made for a customer, and did some routine shopping at Sainsbury’s. Back at the boat, I checked the email, and we had lunch.

In the afternoon it was still pretty wet out there, so we put the time to good use by sorting out the filing box, which had got over-full. A fair amount of paper could be thrown out, and some was transferred to longer term storage under the side berth. I did the blog, and then made chicken tagine for dinner with the bits and bobs off yesterday’s chicken. This still leaves two portions for eating with salad tomorrow.

Saturday 23 June

The morning was characterised by heavy showers. This is proving to be a very wet June. I mean, I know that Glastonbury and Wimbledon bring out the worst in the British weather, but this is getting ridiculous.

We’d got a lot of recycling built up in the boat. Last year, this bit of canal, from Stoke Bruerne south, had some basic recycling bins made out of oil drums (appropriate) at each sanitary station. This year, possibly because the waste contract has changed to Biffa, they’ve all gone. MK has a recycling facility in one of the Centre car parks, so we lugged several big bags of stuff over there, and popped into Sainsbury’s again while we were there. The boat’s food stocks are now getting quite complete, which will keep us going down the Nene. It’s a lovely river, but the supermarket opportunities are at the ends, at Northampton and Peterborough. There are several nice towns on the way, but very small ones.

Back at the boat we had coffee, and I ran the engine. The inverter/charger started playing silly sods again almost straight away, so we’ll have to do most of our charging from the DC alternator until I can get it looked at.

During the past few trips across Campbell Park we’d seen signs of a fairground and some sound stages being set up. Checking the MK website led to the discovery that it’s a celebration of the city’s fortieth birthday today. They’ve called it “The Big Moo”, presumably because of the famous concrete cows, and it’s a set of subsidised fairground rides, together with some disco and live music stages, three altogether, some of them for local performers. Tomorrow we have dragon boat racing on Willen Lake, which is also not far from where we are moored.

After lunch we walked back into Campbell Park and walked round the show. It was all very good fun for those with kids – tonight will be for the teens and twenties presumably. They had an attempt on a face painting record, lots of slides and seriously scary rides, bouncy castles, all the fun of the fair in fact. One of the many pleasures of this lifestyle are these serendipitous encounters with local events.

Back at the boat the weather was fine enough to sit out on the towpath for a cup of tea, but it didn’t last, and we were soon back on board. We had a lazy afternoon and evening. The highlight was the news that the River Severn has reopened – let’s hope that the Nene will soon follow.