Buckinghamshire – Narrowboat Firecrest

Artists at Work

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

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

Hoping we’ve had had our quota of being frozen in already this year, and i suspect Jules feels the same.

Meandering through Milton Keynes

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.

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.

Welcome to 2023

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.

But it was still cold, so we only clocked 2 miles and moored up just beyond the 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.

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.

But for now we were back in Suffolk, where the Vikings arrived in their Long boats,

And the fishermen still go out in little wooden boats

And we take the family out for breakfast at the farm cafe

this is almost as far East in the country that you can get

And looking north you can see where all the icy winds come whistling down to freeze the country… and the canals

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.

Turning Right at Bulls Bridge

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

And under some high railway bridges

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.

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.

Moving on to Marlow

During June and July the river really belongs to the rowers, or at least they act as if it does. But thankfully we left Henley before the Regatta officially started. But we we still had to follow the course.

And although we followed the arrowed signage the way ahead looked clear. What we hadn’t realised was the imminent attack approaching from behind. Traveling fast at 4mph (which is a rare occurance for Firecrest) we felt like we were taking our elephant for a stroll around the Ascot race track as the rowers had to slow down from their charge to avoid hitting us. Apparently a men’s 8 averages 14mph. Things weren’t helped by a single non competative rower, (eg the donkey) had ignored the signs and was travelling the wrong way. For us it turned what should have been a dignified dwardle into a fraught furlong.

But we survived to reach Temple Island which is where the Regatta races officially start.

The eyot with it’s temple, (a folly orignially built as a fishing lodge in 1771), now belongs to the Henley Royal Regatta who forbid anyone to moor or step foot on the island unless the committee gives written permission, can be hired for the day for £1750 plus the hiring of boats to transport your guests.

We decided not to linger, and to be honest breathed a sigh of relief to be off the course. We enjoyed a few nights wild mooring before we reached Marlow, home to the worlds most revered rower Sir Steve Redgrave.

Sir Steve Redgrave, 5 times olympian rower

There was plenty to see in Marlow, a pleasant stroll along the river path takes you to All Saints church, part of historic Bisham Abbey

But as we have found all along this river some views are tantalising close… if you can swim, but bridges are few and far between. But then again when you do find a bridge, its usually quite special. The current Marlow bridge was built circa 1830 by William Tierney Clark who went on to build the larger Hungarian Széchenyi Chain Bridge that crosses the Danube

Marlow bridge with All Saints Marlow (not to be confused with all saints bisham)

We enjoyed Marlow, although its the first place we have been “disturbed” by several noisy groups who had drunk a little too much champagne (is there such a thing as too much champagne?)