Rain was slowly sliding down the outside of the cabin window as I awoke. We had breakfast and began our journey in fine but persistant rain -'Dreich' as my gran would have called it. I was looking at the large field that had, yesterday afternoon, been cultivated, drilled and harrowed by a series of large attachments to a large tractor. The evening saw a sprayer with very long booms spray some sort of green fluid on the whole field in a matter of a couple of hours.
This morning, eight guinea fowl, a few pheasants and a lot of pigeons were working to find something edible. Just through the first bridge hole, a Jay sat on the towpath and flexing his wings now and again, engaged me in a game of stare before capitulating and flying off.
Very Peter Scott it was this morning (Bill Oddie for the younger amongst you).
I renamed the canal the Ground Union, as in the centre, I was stirring up a lot of mud and making a wash just above tickover. Two oncoming hire boats were pulling a wash some 6 inches high which was breaking on both sides.
Passing Baxter Boat services, there was an interesting sympathetic conversion on a proper dutch sailing barge of low freeboard and pronounced sheer, the overall effect looked good. Onward under Cavendish bridge and stopped to fill with water at Cosgrove. One of Leighton Buzzard hire boats was passing as we had filled up, we joined them in the lock and went down to Wolverton with them as we were both stopping to visit Tesco.
Opposite the old London & North Western Railway works, a new development of flats and penthouse flats was almost complete, a new footbridge linked them with part of the old works across the canal. This part was being re-roofed and converted to living accomodation. On balance, I would prefer this course of action to the inevitable decay and demolition of these fine remnants of our once proud and great engineering prowess. We took luncheon surrounded by these contrasts and moved down to Stantonbury Bridge where we usually stop on our southward journeyings. The Wolverton Mural has been subjected to Graffitti at the southern end; my photo does not show the work of this moron. The Stantonbury mooring is suffering from the encroaching flotilla of semi-permanent moorers and their accompanying towpath mounted generators. We managed to place ourselves midway between two generator groups and it was relatively quiet. Very few boats on the move apart from Leighton Buzzard hirers.
2009 Totals: Locks 22; Miles 38.5; Bus Pass Journeys 2.
