Easter Cruise: Day 4

It was pretty chilly this morning, but once it warmed up it’s been really hot.  We set off a little after 8.30, and were soon at Stoke Hammond Lock which was in our favour.  At Fenny Stratford Lock a boat was just going in, so we slotted in alongside.  It was a recently retired Wyvern Shipping boat, which now lives just below the lock; they’d come up, turned around, and were going back down again.

After the lock we caught up with a widebeam going very slowly, so I had to keep dropping out of gear just to stay a reasonable distance behind.  Fortunately they stopped near MK marina.  A bit further along, we passed the new marina which is not far off finished.  Part of the scheme is the entrance to the planned Bedford and Milton Keynes waterway, but there’s less of it than I had been expecting — just a few yards which will apparently have pontoons in it.  You can see where the next few hundred yards will go, though.

We’ve seen a lot more ducklings on the way back.  This wasn’t all of this brood — they were too busy and fast to get them all in the shot.

We continued the long plod through Milton Keynes, seeming rather fewer boat’s than we’d expected. Fortunately, those we did meet were mostly in reasonable places rather than awkward bends or bridge holes.  The towpath was very busy with walkers and cyclists.  As we approached the Wolverton Aqueduct, we started seeing people including boaters, with ice creams; when we got to the aqueduct we found a man with a mobile ice cream stall.

We found a mooring long enough a little way along, and got moored up.  We then walked back to get an ice cream, which was surprisingly frozen.  We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting out reading, until a colleague of Adrian’s and her partner who live nearby and walked along on the off chance we might be here.  We had a nice chat over a glass of wine.  Now there’s a turkey drumstick and roast potatoes in the oven, for our Easter Sunday dinner.

15 miles, 2 locks.  (47 miles, 19 locks)