June weekend: Day 2

Another lovely sunny and warm day.  We’d moved Adrian’s car to the marina last night, so we didn’t have to do it this morning.  We set off at about 8.45, and were soon going across the Wolverton Aqueduct.  In Robbie Cumming’s latest series, he said the view was the best he’d seen from an aqueduct — but it later transpired he hasn’t done the Llangollen Canal so hasn’t been over the Ponty!  But the view is still pretty good.

This was the third time in two days I’d done this stretch, so any of the moored boaters who were paying attention must have wondered what we were up to.  But this time we carried on past the winding hole at New Bradwell, heading for Milton Keynes.

Our first target was the water point at Giffard Park.  There was someone on it, but there was also room for us to pull in and wait, and I made a visit to the Tesco Express to get the things I forgot yesterday.  I also got a 9v battery for the smoke alarm, which for some time now has been beeping intermittently, but only at night.  If it does it again tonight, its days are numbered.  Eventually we could water up, but the tap didn’t seem the fastest.  Earlier we passed a huge crèche of goslings, and the whole group came by while we were moored.  We then passed them again when we set off, and this is probably the best photo of them all.  We reckoned there were probably 30 in all.

We plodded on through Milton Keynes, spending quite a lot of time on tickover because of all the moored boats.  As we approached Fenny Stratford Lock, a little Sea Otter moored up if we were going up, and could they join us?  We were, and they could.

It turned out they moored at Taverners, just through the bridge from our marina, which explained why we recognised each other.  They stopped for the Elsan and rubbish, but caught us up again at Stoke Hammond lock, which needed turning.

There was a rubber glove in the water in the lock, which looked quite macabre at times.

We moored just round the corner in a spot with a nice outlook.  It’s a bit of a favourite spot round here, although it seems to have been nearly four years since we were down this way.  There’s a wide towpath, so the Cobb barbecue will be coming out this evening.

14 miles, 2 locks.  (20 miles, 3 locks)