Aylesbury and Wendover Arms

Having descended the 16 lock flight of the Aylesbury arm I stayed over the weekend to give my knees a rest.  On Saturday I took the train to London to have another look at the Regent's canal. I always enjoy Camden market which is so vibrant and colourful with many types of food to chose from.  This is the first time I'd visited on a Saturday and the place was heaving with many sitting on the edge of the canal by the lock which could make navigating tricky. I'm sure they'll move when 16 tons of steel approaches.  The atmosphere was great, as was the bang bang chicken.

Camden Lock

On Sunday I explored Aylesbury, a pleasant little market town which has retained many of its original buildings and is not completely spoilt by the 21st century. The town has several squares of which the market square is the largest. There are modern shopping arcades but these are quite discreet.

Part of the old gaol - Now council offices

 I attended morning service at St Mary's church, the first time in many a year. I'm not sure why I decided to attend on this occasion and I'm not planning on making it a regular item on my itinerary.

St Mary's Church

The Kings Head pub - Now owned by NT

  As rain was forecast for the middle of the week I decided to head back up the 16 lock flight to the main canal on Monday.  I had  fairly straight forward trip up the arm enjoying the lovely views and reached the top after around 4 hr.  

Lockkeepers house on the Aylesbury arm

On joining the main canal I headed south to to visit the partially restored Wendover arm only 3 miles up the canal. Unfortunately, that 3 miles included the last 7 broad locks taking the canal up to its summit at Tring.  

View from the summit

Turning onto the short Wendover arm

 The restore section of the Wendover arm is only 1.5 miles long with no locks and I was pleased to clear the final lock and turn onto the arm. Half an hour later I reached the end and moored up for the day having covered only 8 miles but 23 locks.

This far and no further