Heading back the way we came

Sunday 8 July

Another bright morning – this is getting quite encouraging, perhaps we’re going to have some more summer after all (the last bit was in April, if you remember). We set off at eight, and were on our own down the bottom two locks of the Marsworth flight (‘the Two Below Maffers’). Locking down a broad lock on your own isn’t anything like the hassle of locking up alone. The main challenge is to manage the boat in the lock so that it’s lined up to go out of the gate you want.

We caught up with a Wyvern boat at the top of the Seabrook three, and shared down the top and middle lock with them. When we got to the bottom lock, however, there was another privateer waiting to go down, so we let the Wyvern go ahead with them, and worked down this one on our own.

We were then alone all the way to Slapton lock, but I wasn’t complaining – boating along on a fine summer’s morning like this is one of the glories of our existence. On the way we crossed with the Keens on Jannock – they were just coming out of Horton lock as we approached. We exchnged badinage about the load of black socks we had drying, but didn't have time for much more. After watering at Slapton we worked down the lock and moored on the Armco piling in the length below.

It lacked half an hour to lunch, so Sheila summoned up her courage and cut my hair using the new trimmer. A cheap cycle cape we’d been given last year as a reward for renewing our River Canal Rescue membership, and which had proved useless as a rain protection, made a good substitute for a hairdresser’s sheet. I sat on the office stool, out on the towpath, draped in this voluminous bright yellow bit of polythene, and Sheila buzzed and clipped away.

I must say that, for a first attempt, it came out not at all bad. I’d like it a bit shorter next time, I think, but of course the joy of doing it yourself is that repeats don’t cost anything. It was certainly at least as good as some of the cuts I’ve been charged seven or eight quid for, so no complaints at all. At this rate the clippers will pay for themselves with three cuts.

After lunch the weather continued fine, so we got busy and did the brass cleaning for the first time in a along while.

Whilst I was doing the blog we had a text from Graham and Carolann on Autumn Years. After sitting at Titchmarsh Lock on the Nene for 24 days (!), they’ve at last been able to leave, so things are looking up for us getting down to the National after all.


Monday 9 July

Yet another brilliant morning. It’s not like last year, when the sky was a cloudless blue and by lunchtime all concerned were sitting about with their tongues hanging out: there’s a fair bit of cloud about, and it still feels chilly when one covers the sun, but it’s definitely summer.

With much lighter hearts we made another eight o’clock start and boated down the remaining locks to Leighton Buzzard on our own. It really was a superb morning’s boating, sunny, peaceful, little birdies singing in the trees and, in the case of the skylarks, in the sky.

After a shortish stop in Leighton – trip to Halford’s for battery top up water, box of latex gloves and boat wash detergent, coffee, trip to Tesco – we went on to the top of the Soulbury Three, where we stopped for lunch. There were mooring rings, but the length could have used dredging as we couldn’t get Sanity properly into the bank. It was, however, easily good enough for a lunchtime stop.

Then we worked down the Three, past the pub with its complement of lunchtime gongoozlers and so to the mooring by Bridge 106 we’d used on the way up. Now we were moored on the other side, handily, so I polished the bits of brass we hadn’t been able to do yesterday. Then we settled down for a quiet afternoon and evening, enlivened only by a regular procession of newly hired Wyvern boats coming past.

Checking the EA website produced confirmation that the Strong Stream Advice for the Nene has been lifted, hooray, hooray. The river is still high, and the Great Ouse is still shut, but by the time we get there things should be more or less back to normal, assuming, that is, that we don’t have any more mini monsoons.