Pisces' peripatetic
peregrinations.
It was the 3rd of
June, another sleepy, dusty, delta day-ay--ayay.
No, hang on, that's
something else! No, my mission was to bring Pisces down from Stoke Bruerne
where a scout group had taken her for a five day adventure. Tim provided
the lift from H.Q. and we liaised with the group leaders just above
Blisworth Tunnel. I joined the boat there and Tim returned to 'The Boat'
opposite the Canal Museum. In pouring rain my gear was placed aboard and
the scouts' gear taken off. Three scout leaders remained, Damian,
Paul and Matt as we made our sodden departure through the first of the
seven locks in the flight. It wasn't made any more pleasant when I
discovered that there was no hot water aboard, it was kettles or nothing!
The second lock proved to be a ba***rd!! The top ground paddles were
letting so much water in [despite being fully wound down] that the lock
wouldn't empty. Consequently, both Damian and I working in concert
couldn't budge the bottom gates. Paul and Matt had gone on ahead to set
the locks in our favour so I had to resort to using Pisces in reverse, her
front line tied to the bottom gate rail and Damian pushing fit to bust. We
just made it!
Around Yardley Gobion
the weather cleared up into a sunny, warm evening. Mark, another scout
leader met us by walking from Wolverton Station along the towpath.
He had caught a train from Leighton Buzzard where he'd left his car. That
was to be their lift home tomorrow.
We went to 'The
Galleon Inn' at Old Wolverton, a lively, noisy pub that stopped serving
food at 20:00. It was now 21:30! Luckily, a local Chinese restaurant whose
menu leaflet was in a rack inside the pub were quite happy to deliver
a takeaway to the pub. The food was taken back to Pisces and eagerly
consumed--the Abbot's Ale drunk earlier increasing everyone's
appetites.
Following the
gastronomic blow-out, bed was sought by 00:05 and I went out like a light.
The weather just could
not make up its mind, one minute sun and bakerama, the next cold
wind and rain, this kept up until 14:55 when the four leaders made their
departure via Tesco's car park in Leighton Buzzard. Earlier, we had
partaken of a pint at 'The Three Locks' at Soulbury where, surprisingly,
several men and women in traditional canal costume locked us through. This
was an annual I.W.A. fund--raising exercise and it enabled us all to drink
our pints in one go!
With all
assistants/assistance gone, it was Sod's Law that all ten locks that I
faced for the rest of the day were all against me but I soldiered manfully
on. By 20:00 I was all in and moored at Pitstone where 'The Duke of
Wellington' saw to my refreshment needs. A lovely, quiet pub situated
about 100 yards from the water. I returned to the boat at 22:00 exhausted
and went to bed almost immediately.
Sunday 5 June
The alarm was five
minutes too late to get me up to a lovely warm, bright day with plenty of
sunshine. I struck lucky at the Marsworth Flight as I picked up a
travelling companion in the shape of 'Tug No. 2' crewed by Gerry, Carol
and Vic[toria.]
I had accompanied this very same boat to the Canalway Cavalcade at Little
Venice a few weeks ago--it's a small world and no smaller than when on the
canal system! 'Tug No. 2' has its own moorings above the top lock so I
penetrated the mysterious, serene and very quiet three-mile long Summit
Level alone. A refreshing chug in perfect solitude.
At
Cow Roast I moored up and filled up the water tank then repaired to 'The
Cow Roast' for an excellent Thai meal before resuming the southern trek
through Dudswell, Northchurch and Berko, where Debbie and Simon, surprise,
surprise were drinking at 'The Rising Sun' and they bought me a cold lager
while we caught up with canal chat. Pressing on, eventually I arrived at
'The Three Horseshoes' where I was not made welcome at the
moorings. I told the manager in no uncertain terms that, if he didn't want
boats to moor then he should get the mooring rings removed and put up a
notice to that effect. I felt like Basil Fawlty when the elderly woman
guest suggested that the view from the window wasn't very good and Basil
stated that, 'This is Torquay, what do you expect to see? Herds of
wildebeest roaming majestically across the plains!'
The manager had
complained that all his customers could see was my boat! I ventured that
this was something they could expect to see, a canal boat on a canal. I
will be formally registering a complaint with Oak Inns regarding my
treatment there today. I have moored there on two previous occasions, the
first time stopping overnight with no complaint!
Disgustedly I had a
quick pint and puttered on down two more locks to moor in perfect peace at
21:00.
Monday 6 June
A soft drizzle was
falling when I woke at 07:30. After a quick cuppa and ablute I left the
mooring at 08:20 and caught up with John on 'Druid' at Fishery Lock. He
was going to Cassiobury Park--perfect! We boated together all that
distance, making life a lot easier. Harold appeared at Apsley Mills and
with him lockwheeling on his bike made life even easier! Through Nash
Mills and King's Langley Harold took over the steering whilst I
cooked us both a big fry--up breakfast. I took over again at Lady Capel's
Lock, having washed up the breakfast things. John left us at Cassiobury and
Harold and I pressed on with a vengeance. Tim collected Harold at
Springwell Lock and took him to his car. Pisces came home to roost at
16:35, and snuggled next to Spirit, no doubt telling of her adventures.
