Saturday 27 August 2016

Pre-trip trip: Day 1

We came up to the boat last night -- having decided that we had a better chance of a decent journey on Friday evening than Saturday morning; we were right, as it took only just over two hours, and I'm sure would have been much longer this morning.

We can't start our big Autumn trip until later next week, but thought we'd spend these few days on board anyway. So this morning, after topping up the water tank, we set off -- in the opposite direction to the way we'll eventually be heading. Only a few minutes after we'd left the marina, there was a torrential downpour -- but it didn't last long; by the time we got to Cosgrove lock it had stopped. The sun shone for most of the journey towards Milton Keynes, where some of the parks seem to have new works of art. I'd don't recall seeing this chap before, and the other one is so new it's still fenced off.

There was another heavy shower just before Campbell Park, but we managed to moor up in the dry, between bridges 81B and 82. There was rain and thunder while we had lunch, and then it brightened up, so we decided to walk up through the park to central Milton Keynes, mostly to use our soon-to-expire vouchers for tea and cake at John Lewis. We made it almost all the way there in the dry -- and the walk back was also dry, although we could see lightening in the distance. We came back via the pyramid beacon, no the cricket ground.

There have been more downpours since we arrived back, as well as more thunder, so I reckon we've done well not to get wetter today. Tomorrow is meant to be better, although we don't have far to go.

8 miles,1 lock.

 

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