It was time to move on from central Milton Keynes, so we took our time visiting some of the places we had been in 2017/18. Our first stop was for lunch at the Camphill cafe, just 5 minutes off the towpath. It’s always a pleasure to support ventures like this, where people with learning disabilities are supported and valued. Not only does the cafe serve great lunches, but there are several well run workshops on the site. Of course I was fascinated by the weaving shed and treated myself to a bag made from the fabric they had made. We also bought some very tasty bread and a jar of their honey.
It seems like MK likes to encourage its artists, and we took some time walking the Gyosei Art trail.
Just some of the art along the towpath from the gyosei trail
Whilst we were feeling so creative, we had the opportunity to meet up with a friend of mine who lives close enough to join us on board for a knit and natter
no excuse needed to knit and natter
And I proudly showed off my latest completed project, This Icelandic sweater is a gift for someone else, but you can bet I’ll be making something similar for me and Eric.
We moored in almost the same place as we had experienced our first real winter on the canal, in March 2018 when “The Beast from the East” stopped us in our tracks
spot the difference
Hoping we’ve had had our quota of being frozen in already this year, and i suspect Jules feels the same.
For many people Milton Keynes means concrete cows and roundabouts. But we’ve seen them before in 2018-when we got frozen in during the beast from the east, now for us, it’s about 15 miles of cruising around 2 sides of a square from Fenny Stratford through to Cosgrove. Ironically, its where we thought we would be for Christmas but getting frozen in at Leighton Buzzard put paid to that plan. And we were still struggling with ice at the beginning of February. Milton Keynes means ice to us.
But at least we had reached Campbell Park, closest to MK central. Milton Keynes was a Roman settlement, which in the 1967 became the biggest and last of the New Towns planned specifically to house the London overflow. Sadly for the older people of Buckinghamshire continued development has seen the surrounding villages swallowed up and when MK was granted city status in 2022, it covered more than 120 square miles. There are many who don’t like Milton Keynes but we suspect that a lot of those people have never actually visited the area and believe its urban sprawl focused on cars. We would disagree, there are 215 miles of dedicated footpaths. no one lives more than half a mile from access to the 5000 acres of parkland.
Campbell Park snowdrops
Admittedly some of the housing estates are the worst 1960s construction imaginable and there’s a general atmosphere of squalor and neglect, but there are just as many very attractive areas. Although we’re not sure how this property got planning permission in the middle of the shopping centre.
Its a lovely walk from the canal up to the centre, through Campbell park, theres a lot of impressive art work
the Light Pyramid, Chain Reaction and Onwards and Upwards
But we liked the lawn mowers the most
and no park is complete without flowers
Although the Milton Keynes Rose is a commemorative art installation, not a floral display, marking the serious and not so
We can never resist trying to see a place from the highest elevation so we took the lift up to the 14th floor of the Hotel la Tour to look down over Campbell park. Eric said it was too early in the day for cocktails….
Looking forward to some warmer days and being able to cruise a bit more now.
We said goodbye to 2022 quietly just above Leighton Lock, still feeling a bit washed out after our brush with covid. It would have been a nice place to stay, except we couldn’t get any tv reception. But when the New Year dawns with crisp clear blue sky, we couldn’t resist the desire to cruise.
January 1st 2023
But it was still cold, so we only clocked 2 miles and moored up just beyond the Soulbury 3 Locks.
Soulbury 3 locks
We’ve enjoyed nice meals there in the past but we try to avoid eating out on a bank holiday so gave it a miss this time, and found us a rural beauty spot instead.
Stoke Hammond
We mooched on slowly until we got to civilization at Fenny Stratford. We’d planned to spend a few days with family in Suffolk and this was a good place to arrange car hire. I went ahead first by train so I could see some friends as well, the train took me through Ely…. now theres a thought for another summers cruise….We’ve been aboard Firecrest since January 2017, thats 6 years, and still plenty of water left to explore.
Ely from the train
But for now we were back in Suffolk, where the Vikings arrived in their Long boats,
Frosty River Deben
And the fishermen still go out in little wooden boats
Aldeburgh
And we take the family out for breakfast at the farm cafe
Happy families
this is almost as far East in the country that you can get
Looking towards Thorpness
And looking north you can see where all the icy winds come whistling down to freeze the country… and the canals
Freezing Fenny
Oh no, another 10 days frozen in, we eventually managed to break free and move on.
But if the rest of the year is like January, we arent going to get very far. Its taken us a whole month to move 9 miles.
After enjoying the magic of snow and ice for over 2 weeks Eric went down with a stinking cold, two days later so did I… except it wasn’t a just a cold. After 2 years of escaping the dreaded Covid, it finally caught us. Being fully vaccinated, were leading pretty much our normal lifestyle, and to be honest we were surprised that we hadnt already had it. We’d had the odd snuffle, but each time I tested it came back negative. But there was something about the pounding headache accompanying this cold that prompted me to reveal the double line.
Hum. Not what we wanted to see
As luck would have it, knowing a thaw in the ice was imminent and we might be moving on, I had walked up to M&S and done a big Christmas food shop. I’d splashed out on some of their part cooked range and plenty of little nibbly bits, all with good use by dates. The only thing I’d forgotten to get was brussel sprouts, but it was only the 20th so there was plenty of time….
But it wasn’t to be. Covid knocked us for 6, the temperatures went up and the rain came down, the debris thrown onto the ice held on for as long as possible, whilst we retired under the duvet feeling sorry for ourselves.
It might have been a game for the kids, but theres going to be a lot of rubbish in the cut to foul our prop
And we can’t even say there was anything worth watching on tv this year. Our biggest worry was that we had just come through 2 weeks of water rationing. Using the local launderette and enjoying a swim and a shower at the leisure centre, making sure our tank lasted longer than our period of being frozen in. But even now, if we had felt well enough to move, morally, we felt it our duty not to go outside and share our germs, so yet again we were grateful that Firecrest had been built with a large water tank as we eeked out our supply to last another week. Fortunately fuel hadn’t been an issue during the freeze. Juel’s had delivered just as the ice was forming and then they also got stuck. But they were going past us a week after Eric succumbed so he masked up, unlocked the fuel cap and retreated back inside whilst they topped up the diesel. (£1.32l)
Juels fuels
And once the awful headache had passed I was able to get on with knitting my Christmas gnome.
Meet Gnova the gnome
Christmas Day was very subdued, Santa Claus hadn’t been able to do his usual stuff but we still managed an orange and a chocolate to start the day
And Id found something suitable for us to drink with lunch
We finally felt fit enough to make it to the water point on 27th. That was exactly 28 days since we last filled up. We reckon we could have managed another day or two, but my temperament was sorely frayed at not being able to have a proper wash. Good job we didn’t have much of a sense of smell
We’re now looking forward to a new year. Taking things easy cause we still feel washed out.
Dreaming of a White Christmas
Moving closer to town was a good move because as the temperatures dropped , the ice got thicker and we became well and truly stuck fast. Ironically when the ice is thinner it feels worse, because as it moves we hear the cracking, creaking and groaning as it moves against the hull. We try to smash the ice that’s close around the boat to give us a bit of wriggle room to float freely in but we were fighting a loosing battle.
We’ll not get through that
We could tell it was getting colder because the hoar frost was looking so pretty.
Hard to tell, Hoar Frost or Snow
And then we woke up to snow.
That’s a lovely sight to wake up to
Of course I wanted to go out to play instantly, but it was barely a few inches deep, if that.
Not quite deep enough for a snowman
the rough ground made it difficult to build a snowman so I gave up and walked into town instead
Leighton buzzard
Leighton Buzzard is a pretty town, with a good market on Tuesdays and Saturdays and at this time of year the salvation army band are playing carols as well.
But of course its always nice to come back to a snug warm boat
Amanda came for a visit as she lives reasonably close
Ladies that lunch
An ideal opportunity to go for a pub lunch at The Grove and a catch up
The forecast is set to warm up drastically, so its unlikely that we’ll get our white Christmas, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s still too much ice in the canal for us to break free
We meandered towards the outskirts of Leighton Buzzard wearing teeshirts during November’s unseasonal warmth of 18°, stopping along the way to enjoy the sheer beauty of our surroundings.
Below Seabrook Middle Lock
Shortly after we came across a long section with piles of earthworks, with bulldozers and reversing bleeps dominating the views. We called out to a local person to ask what was going on…. building a film set that will be in use for two years and then the countryside will be restored, but he was relinquishing his permanent mooring to find something more peaceful. We didn’t catch the name of this impending epic, but he had our sympathy.
Just above Ivinghoe Bottom Lock
We descended Grove Lock, and settled in for a 14 day stay.
On the Armco below Grove lock
And enjoyed the wonderful sunsets
until we awoke to find ourselves frozen in
Beautiful, but cold
There was still the occasional boat able to break through the ice to make progress. Luckily one of those were those amazing couple who run the Jules Fuels boats so we topped up with diesel. What a relief that was knowing that the forecast was only due to get colder.
There’s potential to get through that without too much damage
We also decided to take advantage of the channel that had been opened in the ice to get us a little closer to the centre of Leighton Buzzard. Another shrewd move.
I’m sitting here frozen in, telling myself to get on with sharing another blog post before I forget where we have been. Family and friends have played a significant part in our gentle autumnal cruising, as we took advantage of several close train stations for visiting. We left Apsley mill with the leaves still green back in October.
Cruising through Hemel Hempstead
During the next 10 weeks we have travelled all of 20 miles north through 40 locks, through rain, shine, wind, snow and ice. We spent an enjoyable two weeks in Berkhamsted
The Boat, Ravens Lane, Berkhamsted
A lovely little town that has embraced the canal running through it, where commercial sheep dip was first created.
And has some real history to explore with its 11th Century castle ruins
Berkhampsted castle, and improvised cricket pitch
And its quirky but genuine Canadian Kwakiutl totem pole, given to the people of Berkhamsted as a thankyou for the kindness shown by John Alsford, a local business man who owned the timber yard where it stands (now a residential area)
The totem pole,
And for the days when it rains so hard you’re glad you already live on a boat there’s the wonderful art deco Rex cinema, which has the comfiest seats I’ve ever enjoyed in a cinema as well as the best toilet graffiti
Things to see in the Ladies,
I went to see “Mrs Harris Goes to Paris,” a real feel good movie, And I took a trip to London to meet up with Amanda at the British Museum to look at the Egyptian artefacts
Me and Amanda outside the British Museum
We could easily have stayed put in “Berko”, we met friends, made new friends and thoroughly enjoyed our visit.
Me, Helen and Amanda
But it was time to move on and we found ourselves a wood to walk through. Even though it was now mid November there was still a lot of green to be seen in Ashridge Woods (easily reached from Dudswell mooring)
Almost Autumn in Ashridge
And it wasn’t just the leaves that were the wrong colour, when we got to CowRoast lock the water wasn’t just crystal clear, it had a blueish tinge to it, almost like an aquarium so clear that we could actually see the lock paddle mechanisms below the water level.
Makes a change from muddy Brown
We had reached the top of the Tring Summit and we would now be descending along our route. But we planted our pins at Tring Resevoirs and settled down for another 14 day stay. (Our header photo) Lots of lovely walks around the area, and a reasonable bus service into Tring.
Tring resevoirs
Knowing that Eric was in a nice place, (good internet, and plenty of solar) I jumped ship and caught the train up to the Lakes to have a week with mum, I also went to see my dentist, but didn’t confess to eating jam and scones or drinking creamy hot chocolate.
Threlkeld village hall cafe, The place to go just outside Keswick
And I think whilst I was in the Lakes, winter arrived
Little did we realise that our next stop would have so many connections with home when we moored up at Apsley Mill.
Looks like the solar panels will do well here
We needed a trip back home to Suffolk and decided that Hemel Hempstead was the ideal place to hire a car, and then nip straight onto the M25. Apsley ticked all the boxes, close enough to the hire company, sunshine on the solar panels, Sainsbury’s and Wicks over the bridge, and CRT facilities just along the towpath.
Apsley Mill visitor mooring
Ideal. And after the essentials had been dealt with, Eric drove back to Firecrest for a week of DIY whilst I stayed out of the way enjoying a week with the family.
That’ll be eggs for breakfast
Heather and Ant keeps chickens, but sadly they (the chickens, not Heather and Ant) are confined to their enclosure for the foreseeable future as bird flu wreaks havoc on the East Anglian poultry business. Chickens (and turkeys) haven’t got big enough brains to understand the need to remain socially distanced from the wild birds so they are having to endure yet anther season of Flockdown. Even more sadly we have seen the evidence this virus is having on our water fowl. The day we cruised out of London we saw 2 dead swans and 2 dead ducks. Frustratingly we hadn’t seen the Defra guidelines at the time so didn’t report our sightings, but we would urge everyone to report finding dead birds in an effort to help eliminate this devastating disease.
“….Reporting dead wild birds You should call the Defra helpline (03459 33 55 77) if you find: • one or more dead bird of prey or owl • 3 or more dead gulls or wild waterfowl (swans, geese and ducks) • 5 or more dead birds of any species Do not touch or pick up any dead or visibly sick birds that you find. For further information see our advice to the public……” Defra website What we did see however (3 weeks too late) was a report on the local London tv news with the reporter travelling along the Regents Canal…. past Firecrest moored at Islington back in August.
Our 0.15 seconds of fame
Once I was back on Firecrest, we took advantage of a walk-in clinic to look after our own health and got our booster vaccines for both covid and flu. And I took the opportunity to walk around the area, which has embraced the canal as an area for the community to enjoy now.
The papermill bridge opposite Apsley Marina
But 200 years ago Apsley was only just starting to thrive when the Grand Union was built bringing and taking goods to and from London. There had been water mills along the Rivers Gade and Bulborne, milling flour and fulling wool for centuries. But the early 1800’s John Dickinson established the first mechanised paper making plant, and in 1911 the brand Basildon Bond was created. And just seeing the name on the clockface brought back happy memories of letter writing. Unfortunately some **** decided to set fire to the historic buildings in January so the visitor centre is closed for the time being. It would have been fun to look around. Basildon Bond is now owned by Hamblins and made in Europe.
The basildon bond building
Although the main street through Apsley seems a bit humdrum now with factory units and retail parks, whilst Eric popped into Wicks for some more paint brushes, I happened to notice the neighbouring unit was Kent Brushes, now there’s a name I remember from my childhood home. I used to have a Kent Hairbrush, and this is where they are still made today. And just my luck the onsite shop was closed. But outside, the most interesting sculpture sat brushing her hair. I’m not entirely sure if I like it, her pose looks a bit sad to me.
Cassiobury Park came from a large area of land that King Offa gave to the Abbey of St Albans in 793 but when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1539 , the estate became home to the Earls of Essex. (I always wonder why the aristocracy don’t live in the county of their title) However as times changed and fortunes were found and lost, parts and parcels of the huge estate were sold off . In 1909 Watford council bought the parkland that we are enjoying today. It really was a lovely place to cruise through,
At least that’s what Jar Jar Binks thinks, as areas of the woodland were used as the planet Naboo in the film Star Wars, The Phantom Menace. However the only menace we were in danger from was the crocodiles in the canal.
We moored up just beyond the current park outside the Grove Mill
Grove mill
and looking at the beautiful bridges the 4th Earl of Essex really did insist on the canal being an asset to his properties
The aptly named White Bridge
Nowadays some bridges need to be a little more heavyweight, especially this one which carries the link road onto the M25
Modern Art
and it wasn’t long before we found ourselves cruising parallel to the bain of our past life, although its outlook from the canal was somewhat more tranquil
Thats just around junction 20
And the image of its mega structure, somewhat more impressive from below than above
Making our escape
So that was it, we had now been released from the inner circle, cruised past Watford, where we now officially back in the north?
Not sure where we’d end up or if its 87.5 miles or 187.5 miles we turned right at Bulls Bridge to begin our journey back up north. We suspect it should say Braunston, but maybe Birmingham. We settled for a few days in West Drayton soaking up the sunshine,
Opposite the train station at West Drayton
Enjoying the sunsets,
and the sunrises
All of which reminded us that we were still, infact, pointing west, not yet going north. And still just about within the Greater London confines inside the M25. Our autumnal cruising plan is to meander slowly up the Grand Union overwintering around the Milton Keynes area, roughly 50 miles and 67 locks. We decided not to venture down the 5 miles Slough arm, because although it is lock free, having chatted to the local boaters, we weren’t sure we could moor easily. Perhaps we missed an opportunity. Perhaps we’ll do it next time.
Cowley Peachy junction for the Slough Arm
but immediately past the junction we were climbing uphill and the locks, thankfully not all 11 foot deep like Denham deep lock
Thats quite a deep lock
And under some high railway bridges
Denham rail bridge
And past some railway bridges not yet built as HS2 passes over the canal around Harefield. We have to take a deep breath and remind ourselves what an eyesore building the canals must have been in the 18th century, but how glad we are to have them now.
HS2
In the late 1700’s William Capell, 4th Earl of Essex, was similarly concerned when sat of the board for the building of the Grand Junction canal, that would pass through his extensive estate, of Cassiobury and Watford. He insisted on the canal being aesthetically pleasing. And so it is.
