Spring Cruise: Day 4

We set off about 8.45, with me walking to the locks at the top of the Aylesbury Arm, and Adrian bringing the boat.  The top two locks are a staircase pair, and I started filling the top one.  It seemed to take an age, and opening the top gate was a real struggle.  Then it became clear why: the bottom lock had filled too.  Just then, the local CRT guy came along, because the pound below the locks had been reported as being very low.  He said the paddle between the two locks broke last week and has been replaced with a temporary one, which doesn’t seal properly.  Anyway, he ran some water down while we were in the top lock, and went to set the next lock for us.  Eventually we got on our way.

After the first few locks, there was no shortage of water, in fact at some of the locks there was a huge amount of water coming over the top gates.

It’s a very pretty, rural canal, with some lovely views.

It was 2014 when we last came down, and since then there has been a lot of building — including these very smart houses at Wilstone.

We eventually caught up with a boat ahead.  At Broughton Lock, we were surprised they hadn’t already started going down, but it seemed there had been some sort of incident involving a cyclist and someone else, which they had half seen, and a boat going the other way had completely seen.  Both were reporting it to the police.  They had been asked to wait, so once down the lock they tied up and we carried on down the last couple of locks into the basin.  We tied up on a pontoon mooring; the last time we were here, the big while Buckingham University building was just a hole in the ground.

Soon after tying up, we noticed police around, taping off the canal and the towpath.  We headed into town to look at the David Bowie sculpture.  It’s supposed to play a random Bowie song every hour on the hour, but it didn’t do it at 3pm.

The Old County Hall had some filming going on.  I asked what it was but the guy wouldn’t tell me — only that it was a feature film.  I guess they were using the court room in there, because people dressed as barristers were hanging around outside.

Back at the basin, there were even more police about.  We’ve had our details taken, along with all the other boaters here.  Hopefully the canal won’t be closed for too long...

7 miles, 16 locks.  (33 miles, 34 locks)