Northampton to Milton Keynes

On Tuesday morning I met a local chap who kindly offered to help me up the 16 locks of the Northampton Arm.  During conversation on the trip it turned out the guy is homeless and living in a nearby barn and helps people up the flight in the hope of a handout.  To be fair he did a stirling job and got me up the flight in under 3 hours which is good going so I was quite happy to tip him few bob for his effort.

After clearing the flight I continued the few miles along  the Grand Union canal to Stoke Bruerne via Blisworth tunnel which was, as ever, cold dark and occasionally very wet where water pours down the air shafts.

Despite the good forecast Wednesday morning arrived shrouded in mist. It had lifted a little by the time I took the photo but at first light I could hardly see the boat opposite me. I had intended to stay another day and do some more painting but as it was clearly not painting weather I decided to head on down the flight of 7 locks and make my way to Milton Keynes.

The trip down the 7 lock flight was straight forward but hard work single handed. A couple of the lock gates were particularly heavy and took a lot of effort to open.

The canal then meanders through open countryside to the village of Cosgrove which was split in two when the canal was built.  The only concern of the villagers was getting horses from one side of the village to the other and so the canal company built a horse tunnel. It is just large enough to het a horse through being about 2 ft wide at the base and widening to 3 ft at shoulder height. The whole tunnel is only 6 ft high.  This is a photo taken on an earlier trip with my niece standing at the far end.

However, while the company may have scrimped on the tunnel they certainly didn't on the centre lock bollards which are around 2 feet square and I suspect could safely hold the QE2.

Shortly beyond Cosgrove the canal crosses the river Gt Ouse via an aqueduct before reaching Wolverton on the outskirts of Milton Keynes. It then takes a large loop around the northern suburbs before finally heading into the city itself.  Despite being famed for its concrete cows and town planner jokes MK is a very lovely place with great swathes of open park land in which the housing is planted like small villages all connected by footpaths and of course the grid road system.

The canal takes a very scenic route into the city as the following photos show. Also the mist had cleared and the spring sunshine was bringing the place to life.

And finally to my mooring in the picturesque Campbell Park, made even more so today with the addition of a charming wooden cruiser moored opposite.