MK - Leighton Buzzard and Aylesbury

After a splendid week in MK catching up with visiting friends and family I finally headed off on Tuesday morning onto waters new as I have not been south of MK on the GU before. The weather was bright but a bit chilly as I wended my way through the outskirts of MK past Fenny Stratford and Bletchley before reaching open countryside. I called into the local marina to fill up with diesel and replace an empty gas bottle, I prefer to use the fuel boats when I can but none passed while I was moored up.   Shortly after leaving MK the canal begins its climb up the Chiltern hills through a series of locks beginning with a set of three just to get you into the swing.

As the canal climbs the views become quite expansive as the valleys stretch off to the distant hills.

The weather remained clear and I arrived in Leighton Buzzard by early afternoon. The visitors moorings were quite busy and I had to moor towards the end which was closer to the main road than I would have liked but very close to Tesco which made shopping easy. As I suspected the sound of traffic could be heard but this lessened around 8pm - Unfortunately this was about the time the local youth met up in the Tesco car park with their pimped up hatchback with a serious sound system. Thankfully they must have had homework to do as they moved off around 9:30 and what passes for calm in an urban area returned. 

In the morning I continued up the canal through a series of locks enjoying the impressive Buckinghamshire countryside. I had planned to head down to Aylesbury today but I was enjoying the views and taking my time with the locks and found I was running well behind schedule. And I cared not.  However, by noon forecast gales arrived making the boat handling quite difficult. As you can see from the trees in the following picture.

Therefore after only 6 miles and 8 locks I decided to find a sheltered spot to moor up and enjoy the peace and quiet with only sound being birdsong, lambs bleating and of course the wind. While pleasant to begin with I must admit that lambs bleating can be as annoying as crying babies after a while, but still preferable to drum and bass. 

I made an early start on Friday morning as rain was forecast for the afternoon. The plan was to climb the remaining three locks to Marsworth junction and then head down the short Aylesbury Arm of the canal. Although only 6 miles long it does drop through 16 narrow locks through splendid countryside on its journey to Aylesbury.  It is perhaps the prettiest stretch of canal I've travelled to date. 

The Aylesbury arm begins with a pair of staircase locks where the bottom gate of the first lock is the top gate of the second with no pound in-between. 

As I descended the arm the views across the vale to the distant hills was superb. However, by lock 12 I noticed the clouds gathering and realised that I was unlikely to reach Aylebury completely dry.

 I got caught in a couple of heavy showers but the combination of waterproof coat and Tilley hat kept the worst of it at bay. I finally reached the basin at the end of the canal only to find it is being refurbished and as a result there was nowhere to moor.  I thus had to turn around and head back half a mile through the bottom lock to the visitors moorings I passed on the way down. As it happened the moorings here are probably better than the basin as they are away from the town centre.

Aylesbury is a pleasant little market town which has retained much of its character in the market square.  This morning I attended the church, not a regular event but I felt moved to visit for some reason. Although a small congregation the service was enjoyable and the coffee and biscuits afterwards very welcome.

And now, as the temperature is forecast to drop to -6c tonight I shall light the fire.