Resonating Gates. 16th May

Berkhamsted to Pixies Farm Bridge (Christmas Card)

5am is not our usual waking time, but Tilly seemed to think that we all should be up and bright eyed! We were not amused and it took sometime to get back to sleep but when we did we made up for it, not waking until quite late. Oh well there’s no rush an average of 2.45 hours a day will get us into London when we want to arrive.

Berkhamsted Castle sits close to the canal so we decided to go and have a look round. Originally built out of timber the motte and bailey was begun in 1066. In 1155 Thomas Becket was granted the honour of Berkhamsted by Henry II, so he rebuilt the castle to show of his new status and to house his large staff. A large flint curtain wall was most probably built then, portions of this still stand today. In 1164 Becket was accused of embezzlement by the King and lost the castle.

The castle is surrounded by large earth works and water filled ditches to stop anyone from tunnelling under the curtain wall. In 1216 the defences were put to the test as Prince Louis of France bombarded the castle  with huge stones. Besieged for two weeks they only surrendered after orders came from the King.

Richard, Earl of Cornwall was granted the castle in 1225, he repaired and rebuilt it and expanded the western tower to create a luxurious palace, he was really quite rich. The castle stayed in the royal family until it was leased by Elizabeth I to Sir Edward Carey who built himself a grand house to the west leaving the castle to fall into a ruin.

In the 1830s plans to build the new London and Birmingham Railway threatened the castle, but there were concerns over the need to protect ancient monuments and buildings. Berkhamsted Castle was the first building in Britain to receive statutory protection from development, however the route still required the track to pass through the outer fortifications and in 1834 the gatehouse was destroyed.
The earth works are huge and the flint walls now surround a large lawn where once numerous buildings would have stood. Instead the 19th Century chocolate box Keepers Cottage now sits in the grounds only missing some rambling roses and a white picket fence. Entry is free and it’s worth the climb up the steps to what was the keep on the motte for the view across the valley as trains hurtle past. I’m not sure that the two ladies we met had chance to admire the view as their personal trainer kept sending them running up to the top of the steps, “We’re paying for this!” said one of them as the younger personal trainer checked facebook pretending to time them.
Sam from NB Red Wharf paused to say hello and ask after Tilly as we were having our lunch. Our paths last crossed with him at the bottom of Lapworth when we were making our way to Crick on Lillian. Have a good summer Sam and maybe our paths will cross again.
We had to wait for a couple of boats to come past before we could pull out, this would mean that the locks would need resetting for us. No lack of water as we  made our way to Ravens Lane Lock,in parts it looked like it was about to cover the towpath. Here and the lock before have new top gates and when refilling the locks, all paddles open they resonate and sing a note until they are all but a couple of feet full.
A hire boat was coming up hill and had to wait for us to come down as I’d not seen them until it was too late. The chap I was talking to said they would be heading on through Berko, the chap Mick talked to thought they’d be staying the night. At least I mentioned that Gas Lock was closing in the morning and they could end up being stuck for a day and half, I think they’ll be heading a bit further today.
Back in the land of leaving locks empty again and the boats ahead were leaving paddles up as instructed, at least both gates were closed so it wasn’t too much of a pain to drop them. Here the lock chambers leak and boy do they look like it, chunks of brickwork are missing in places and there are just only traces of mortar left between the bricks. Apparently they are scheduled for routine maintenance this coming winter according to the sign dated 2014.
The clouds around us got darker and heavier and there was a distinct feeling that the heavens would open any minute. Luckily we only had a few spots before we pulled up for the day. Our mooring is one we’ve used a couple of times before and featured in our Christmas card in 2014 on a frosty morning, today it is just humid and we were grateful that the towpath was on the opposite side to the side hatch, so we could have it open whilst Tilly went to find friends amongst the watercress.
6 locks, 2.22 miles, 1 cat lucky not to have been thrown in! 0 sign of swans though!! 2 visits to Waitrose, 1 very old draughty castle, 2 foolish fit ladies, 1 Lily Ann, 1st time spotted, 2 ahead, 3 left empty, 1 shiny boat standing out somewhat.

Wetter Than Expected. 15th May

Cowroast to Berkhamsted

Oleanna was on what felt like a bigger list this morning, maybe the pound had dropped a little overnight. So before breakfast Mick  pushed us out so that we were slightly more level and would be able to keep the milk on our cereal. Outside it was raining and if we’d have been a bit more level maybe we’d have stayed put for the day, but instead we donned our waterproofs and made ready to push off.

 

At Cowroast we stopped to fill the water tank. Mick connected the hose and turned the lever, I held the other end and waited for the hose to be flushed out before popping it into the tank. All of a sudden the hose flew off the connector at the water point end producing a horizontal water jet straight at Mick who leapt out of the way. Good job he had his waterproofs on as he was dripping! With the hose more securely attached we continued to fill the tank, the exceptional pressure meant that it didn’t take long which was just as well as another boat arrived to go down the locks.

 

With Oleanna and NB Windruff sharing we suggested to the single hander that I’d open one of the bottom gates for him to exit and then Mick would move Oleanna over to use the same gate. This meant he could stay on board and not have to bow haul his boat out of the lock or climb any ladders and I wouldn’t have to do anymore work than I would if we were on our own. This all worked very well and despite the rain it was a good morning going down hill.

Our aim was to get past Gas Lock 1 which is closing for a day and a half this week so that they can reduce the water loss on it. Many of the locks on this stretch you have to leave empty. Either because the water in a full lock can seep through the chamber walls and flood nearby properties or because the bottom gates leak so much that if the top gates were to open over night a hole pound could gradually empty. Going down hill leaving them empty is easy, leaving a paddle up will keep them that way.

The route into Berkhamsted is full of willow trees and really quite pretty. Just a shame that the west coast main line runs next to it with it’s speeding trains all day. Down the last lock into Berko and we pulled in waving our companion goodbye. There was enough space for us on the 14 day moorings before the new 4 hour shopping mooring.

As we were leaving to go shopping NB Books and Spud was just pulling in. A boat in front of us had moved off since we’d moored making it look like we were hogging two spaces, so we nudged ourselves back to give them enough space to be on the 14 day mooring. We were just tying back up when NB Chance passed heading up the locks, they are another blogging boat that is for sale at the moment.

A walk around town didn’t find us a hardware shop, but the craft shop behind Waitrose came up trumps with some felt and cotton tape to put loops on our towels now that we have hooks. A few purchases from Waitrose, I had taken the time to adjust ‘My Picks’ before going so that our shop was cheaper than it would have been elsewhere and we got a free newspaper too.

 

I’ve spent the afternoon looking longingly out of the windows. It looks brilliant here, plenty of friendly cover, trees and sideways trees, but they wouldn’t let me out! Something to do with a big boat pecking Dad swan that wouldn’t leave us alone, I’d have shown him! That and his babies were exactly the reason she wasn’t allowed out!

7 locks, 2.68 miles, 1 wet day, 1 dripping Mick, 37 very fast trains, 1 mermaid, 8 tentacles, 2 towpath monsters, 1 nudge back, 1 Chance, 1 boat eating bully, 4 cygnets, 0 on at the cinema we fancied.

Nearly Too Low. 14th May

Cheddington Bridge to Cowroast

One of Oleanna's mushroom vents started playing a one note tune last night. We had a sudden downpour in the early hours, which is our first overnight rain since we’ve been living on Oleanna. One of the domed tops must have just been catching the heavy rain at the right angle to be rung like a bell. It sounded like the rain had set in and that today would be a wet one, but when we got up all was dry.

The hirers we’d met yesterday came past in the opposite direction just after we’d had breakfast so our continued journey up hill would not be slowed down by them today. At 11.30 we finally pushed off and waved goodbye to the Margees house, a swan was happily sitting on her nest in the corner of the garden.

Lock 37 and 38 were empty and the pound between them was very low, almost two foot down by the time we’d made our way up in the first chamber. They both had bottom leaking gates and the top gates of the first lock really wanted to stay open, this would gradually empty the pound even more, so I stayed and persuaded them to stay put whilst Mick moved Oleanna up to the next lock. The long pound above was also low, water was being back pumped to try to lift the level.

The cottage on the outskirts of Marsworth reminded me of an upside down version of Le Corbusiers Chapelle Notre Dame du Haut.

We pulled in opposite the services at the bottom of the main flight of Marsworth for a bite to eat and empty our yellow water tank. There was a boat coming up the staircase lock at the beginning of the Aylesbury Arm so we took our time in reaching the next lock, however they didn’t follow us so we went up solo. Here the gongoozling started. Two young lads raced up to the lock beam and leaned against it in readiness to push, this they did expertly and they closed it after us too, they said they were regulars.

Round the side of the reservoir to the next lock, we pulled in as two boats were about to come down assisted by a volunteer. As they left Keith introduced himself fully asked how far we’d be going today and then asked if it would be alright for him to go ahead and set the next lock for us. Of course it was. He was one of those chaps who gives you very useful information if you’ve not been that way before, and if you have he still gives it to you.

Here we were joined by NB Book and Spud. They had family with them for the weekend who were novices. I worked one side whilst they all chatted and worked the other. With Keith setting everything ahead we made good progress up the flight. It being a sunny Sunday we had quite a lot of people watching as we went. Keith offered us more advice at the top on journey times before he picked up his bag and headed for home. He’d said that there had been lots of space on the moorings at Bulbourne this morning, but as we made our way along it was the busiest we’ve ever seen it, not a space to be had anywhere.

So we continued on through the cutting and decided to try our luck at Cowroast. Just as the cutting was diminishing a bird flew straight towards us, skimming over the full length of Oleanna and just lifting to within a couple of feet of our heads. It’s orange breast and the fish in it’s mouth gave it away before we turned to see the flash of electric blue dart just above the water. One of those moments when we wished we had a webcam on the front of the cratch.

When we pulled in our depth was a problem again, but we really didn’t want to carry on any further, so we tied up with the stern slightly out from the bank (we really must get a plank sometime soon). Because we were sitting on the bottom Mick decided to see what depth we were. Around 2ft 6” or 7”! In the bible that came with Oleanna it says that we should be 2ft 3” fully laden, the water tank isn’t full but we will need to loose some ballast to sit at that depth.

9 locks, 5.02 miles, 1 swan sitting, 2 very low pounds, 6 hirers waving goodbye, 2 keen beam pushers, 4 on a boat, 7 locks shared, 1 Keith, 2 leftish straight ons, 1 deep cutting, 2 grandparents 1 grandchild playing Boo! very badly, 1 low flying Kingfisher, 30” deep! 1 large leap for a cat.

At The Bottom of The Garden. 13th May

Bridego Railway Bridge to Cheddington Bridge, The Margees Garden.

As I stepped out of bed this morning I had forgotten that we were on a list to port, so I stumbled across the bathroom. Luckily the list was no more than it had been yesterday evening. When it came to pushing off  we had to do a bit more pushing than normal. The bow moved out, but the stern didn’t seem to want to go anywhere. With a spurt of engine Mick got the back off and then of course back on the bottom. A few toing's and froing's and Oleanna was fully afloat again.

We had been passed by a couple of boats before we started this morning, one was a hire boat with six grey haired crew. As we approached the first lock the hire boat was ascending, I hopped off and walked up so that I could reset the lock when they were finished. They seemed very keen to lend me a hand which was very nice of them, but I really didn’t need it so said thank you and would they wait for us to join them at the next lock. They thought that there might be a boat waiting for them.

Up we came into quite a low pound, we crawled our way along and could see that the hire boat was rising in the next lock along with another boat. We didn’t risk pulling Oleanna into the side I just hopped off the bow and Mick then loitered in the deeper water. There was a single hander waiting to go down and four of the crew from the hire boat stayed to help. It was quite obvious that this was their first time and none of them really knew how things worked. Once the single hander was down I said that I’d be fine on my own just as the chap who’d been at their helm came to chivvy them along.

Along this stretch there are either pumping stations by the locks of rather nice lock cottages that boast their build date of 1914 above the front door. On we pootled, at the next lock the hire boat had just closed the gates as we approached, the other boat had obviously got bored of waiting and gone off ahead. The hirers hadn’t thought of waiting for us, even after me talking to them about saving water by sharing. So we came up hot on their tails. A Red Kite swooped over head just out of arms reach, sadly I didn’t have my camera with me.

At the next lock we had caught them up so shared with them. It was now even more obvious that none of them really knew what to do, they were very nice with it, but I felt that the day was about to get very long indeed. Mick suggested that we go ahead to get the next lock ready, so I hopped on and we left them to faff closing up the lock. The boat ahead of them had waited, so we ended up sharing the rest of the days locks with NB Duxllandyn, leaving the hirers behind.

Mr Duxllandyn walked ahead to open Seabrook Swing Bridge for us to go through first as we were planning on mooring up soon afterwards. Under the bridge was a reed floating island which turned out to be covered in metal mesh a bit like a gabion. It moved as the bridge was swung and then Mick tried to move it out of the way, only to get our boat hook caught in it for sometime. At least it got it well out of the way for the next boats passing by.

Once round the S bend involving a rail bridge and marina we pulled in right in front of a house we heard a lot about last year. Cedarwood House was built by Alison and Laura from NB Large Marge in 1999. They lived there until they moved on board NB Large Marge three or so years ago. What a location with a fantastic view and mooring to boot. Mick headed off to a shop that the Margees had pointed us to for our Saturday newspaper.

 

After a spot of lunch we decided that we’d stay put for the rest of the day and do some jobs. Tilly was allowed out to explore whilst we got the drill and screw drivers out. Hooks that we’ve had since leaving Sheffield have at last gone up on bathroom doors. At last we can hang the bathroom window bungs up along with our towels. A clock has gone up in the bedroom along with a hook to hang Micks’ Akubra on. A couple of boxes of stuff have been resorted and transferred into storage boxes and my model of Oleanna has come out of it’s tube and is now under the TV, back on display.

They seem to think it’s good here. But I’m not so sure, where’s my friend Jaffa!? The new people in his house have a woofer and they have spent the afternoon pulling up green that my friends tend to like hiding in. And he then put the green onto a heap that fell into the canal!

 

7 locks, 3.61 miles, 1 swing bridge, 3 attempts to get off, 1 ditch crawled, 6 clueless crew, 1 floating paint scrapper, 1 sales pitch, 3rd viewing of Lillian, 1 unimpressed Cat, 1 paper shop, 1 house with a view, 1 number entered  in the book, 7 hooks, 1 clock, 2 storage boxes sorted, 0 tasty neighbour!

1 Big Happy Birthday to Frank from all three of us.

 

Showing Off. 12th May

The Globe to Bridego Railway Bridge

Slightly fuzzy headed this morning we got ourselves up and ready to wave Tench and NB Morning Mist goodbye. Today they were going to be accompanied by three trainees, volunteers who had joined for the day to help with the journey into Milton Keynes. Heather pushed off first with the trainees sitting in the hold of Tench, she was shortly followed by Kate at the helm of Morning Mist. A Mum and Dad swan had brought their off spring to show off and say goodbye too with four of their cygnets hitching a ride, exceptionally cute.

We slowly had breakfast and only just managed to push off before the afternoon had caught up with us. Leighton Buzzard Lock had just been set by a lady who was coming down along with a single hander. He was grateful of the help as he’d broken his foot a month ago, have to say I wasn’t out at the helm so soon after my accident, but I did have Mick. The pound above was full of the Wyvern Hire Fleet at one place they were four a breast with a team of cleaners working their way through them all for the next hirers.

The water level was quite low and we had a bit of difficulty pulling in at the Tesco Shopping mooring, but once tied up we managed to make purchases in all three of the shops there. This is a favourite place to feed the ducks for the locals, so it is crammed full of ducks which kept Tilly busy at the windows whist we shopped. I just wonder how many loaves of cheap white sliced are bought to just be throw into the canal here, maybe bird seed should be on the same aisle as the bread in Tescos.

The last couple of days we have felt like we’ve been in the south, the accent, cost of beer and food and just the general feel of the places. But today it was confirmed when we saw the Grove Lock Pub with it’s Fullers sign. Mick managed to hold off requiring his first pint of Pride today. There were a few signs that work had been carried out at the lock over the last couple of days. New timber had been added to the gates where boats rub them as they pass through, this should stop them from leaking as much. The ground paddle that I believe has been out of action for sometime was mended, but getting it to move was another thing, it took some shifting!

On we pootled, up through Church Lock and around a few bends. Then the short stretch of armco came into view so we pulled in. If it wasn’t for the very green hedge we’d be able to see Bridego Bridge which was used by the Great Train Robbers in 1963 to off load the money from the train. We are still waiting for the forecast rain to arrive, we certainly could do with some as we’ve heard that pounds ahead of us are really quite low.

3 locks, 3.91 miles, 3 trainees, 2 waves goodbye, 4 babies being shown off, 1 left to swim for it self, 1 slow morning after 2 much to drink, 2 shallow for some, 1st Aldi we ever visited, 3 slices just floating, 1 lion, 1nephew finished Sats, 0 funding disappointment, 10 minutes late only, 5 weeks of owning Oleanna, 2 boaters still with grins, slightly fuzzy 1s.