Yesterday evening we had our planned towpath BBQ with Del and Al, which started with Pimms and nibbles for which we were joined briefly by Richard from nb ‘Stardust’, who’s moored just 100 yards from us.
Al, Del, Richard and James getting the evening started.
After a tremendous BBQ (cooked so expertly by Del – bless him) we were joined by Pauline and Neil from nb ‘Waterlily’ after they’d returned from their pub meal at the The Globe, a few hundred yards up the cut.
It had been cool all day today, and when the sun went down it got even cooler – so cool in fact that Pauline and Neil had to take to a blanket! Even the hundreds of candles we lit and the fairy lights in the trees above us (donated by Doug and fixed up by Del – bless him) didn’t improve the temperature. However, we all had the most splendid time, being envied by the hoards of people walking the towpath up to the pub. With the occasional unwanted sausage being thrown to passing dogs even the animals had a great time!
This morning we said a sad farewell to two splendid people, Del and Al. It was enormous fun over the last couple of days guys – thanks so much and see you again soon!
We were joined this morning by one of Doug’s school friends Julia, her husband Mark and son Jack for a trip along to Fenny Stratford. Travelling with nb ‘Waterlily’, we started from our moorings along the wonderfully named Jackdaw Pound with Jack at the tiller. He got to grips with the steering straight away and made a great job of it for most of the journey.
We got to the three Soulbury Locks where Jack and his parents had a go at lock operation. Strangely, the bottom lock needs to be filling before the middle lock is emptied otherwise The Three Locks pub gets flooded when the pound overflows! That’s according to the volunteer lock keeper.
A nice old tub.
Pimms and nibbles in the lock – Mark and Julia seem to be enjoying their trip while Neil on ‘Waterlily’ is concentrating on something important.
We moored up at Fenny Stratford for lunch – Jack’s a growing lad and needs to be first in the queue! After lunch Jack and his mum and dad left us to continue our journey alone. We had a super time with you all, thanks for coming and we’ll have to do it again sometime.
Continuing on, we passed through Milton Keynes which feels very rural for much of the time.
Not finding a reasonable mooring beforehand, we found ourselves at Cosgrove, having first negotiated the Ouse Aqueduct with its scary drop to the river below.
We’ve got good moorings this evening just before the lock at Cosgrove. We got settled at about 7 o’ clock after a long, and happy, day’s cruising.
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