Saturday 3 March 2007

Cruising weather.

Now moored at Fenny Stratford (Bletchley),5 Locks / 61/2Miles
Total of 151 locks and 1141/2 miles since 5th Nov 2006

What a cracker of a day, sunshine and clear blue sky again. What more could we ask for.

To start the day we went for a walk up to the main road and had a browse along the railway line and saw the ornate tunnel mouths pictured. Railway designers in the days when railways were just being built had a bit of imagination and liked to make a lasting impression a bit like canal builders I suppose.

Once we got under way it was lovely feeling the heat of the sun on our backs.

Sure sign that spring is here as the willow trees are just starting to show signs of leaf buds opening and we saw our first lamb which looked to be a few days old.

The box hawthorn hedge along the towpath was absolutely abuzz with bird life and the rabbits were having a ball hopping and running around the paddock in the sunshine. I knew I should have bought a shot gun, nothing like a bit of rabbit pie.See how many rabbits you can spot in the photograph.

At one point I was cruising close to the tree line looking for snagged fishing tackle in the branches to retrieve when there was a huge splash alongside us. It appears that we must have surprised a large fish lying in the shallows among tree roots probably enjoying the suns rays as we were. All I saw was part of its tail and it was no tiddler.

The canal was quite busy with only 1 boat going the same way as us and 5 boats passed us heading to Leighton Buzzard for a week-end Save Our Waterways campaign rally. It’s good to see that the S.O.W campaign is still alive and kicking.

We eventually moored up between lock 22 and bridge 94 in Fenny Stratford. Once we had got ourselves organised we walked into town via the Fenny Stratford railway station and got an idea of what was available. Tomorrow we will go back into town for further perusal.

One thing that caught my eye while wandering around was a double decker bus that had been converted into a motorhome. I would have liked to have got a closer look but it was on the back of a tow truck.

Derek at the Soulbrey flight of 3 locks

Fenny Stratford Railway Station

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