Aspley Sainsburys to Grove Park Bridge 164

Ordering our shopping online meant someone else got the pleasure of walking round the store in the early hours of the morning saving us time. However there were certain items not available for Click and Collect, the right sized bin bags and odour control cat litter! Our experience whilst in the house is that for some reason some things don’t show online, but are actually in the shops. So after breakfast we both headed over to Sainsburys, Mick headed to the Click and Collect area whilst I went into the store finding the items we were missing. Thankfully they had the cat litter, bags and some highlighter pens I was after to finish my #unit 21 costume designs. Sadly our trolley wheel locked as we left the car park, so we weren’t able to get it back to the boat as we’ve done before, good job it wasn’t too far to carry everything.

When everything was stowed we put on our waterproofs as today we would be cruising in rain no matter what. At Apsley Bottom Lock a chap was walking round taking notes and photos of the paddle gear. His behaviour was that of someone who worked for C&RT, but nothing else suggested that, no logo or life jacket. Maybe he was going to complain to C&RT about the poor state of the lock. He’d be right as both top ground paddles are only just holding it together with metal ties through them and at some point some expanding foam has been added to the post, all quite rotten.

NB Candi had headed off before us so we were on our own today. Woody’s Vegetarian Café is for sale, we bobbed under the left hand arch of bridge 154 and didn’t spot any Kingfishers as we made our way to Nash Mills Lock and the water point there. We topped up the tank whilst the washing machine cleaned a load of clothes and then started to fill the lock, with only one paddle actually there (the other two missing) it took forever to fill.

The mile long pound between Red Lion Lock and Kings Langley Lock gave us a rare opportunity to come out of tick over as at last there were lengths with no moored boats. But what had replaced them was school kids, not a hand full, but what felt like thousands of them. It looked like the whole school was out on a walk. Some kids said it was six miles, others said they’d already done six miles and still they kept coming.

At the road bridge below Kings Langley Lock the towpath changes sides and so did the kids. A chap came up in the lock, going in the same direction as the wave of youth, he’d been asked numerous times if he could give them a lift, Mick was almost gloating that we were going in the wrong direction for them.

The Cottage alongside Home Park Lock has just sold, it’s had a new lick of paint and looks very neat and tidy LINK.

This was where the school kids were crossing over the canal and joining the towpath. Most just followed the flow, we got a surprising number of waves and comments about how nice Oleanna looked. Then once we dipped under Bridge 159 the world quietened down again, well until the M25 came closer!

Most of the scaffolding has gone from the viaduct, but there is still plenty about. The underside of the concrete looks to have been painted if nothing else. Now we were within the M25, not much further until we reach our destination.

Due to the rain, Mick had been trying out some protection for the phone we run Waterway Routes on. Quite a good idea, except the whiteness of the tupperware restricted the view of the screen somewhat, if you could see where it was at all! We’ll have a better hunt through the cupboards for something hopefully clearer.

A boat was coming up the top lock at Hunton Bridge, everyone a little bit damp to be overly chatty. This lock always reminds me of my friend David who passed away some years ago. The arched trellis on the cottage walls is the same as I made for an opera he was overall designer for at Stowe in my secondment year from college.

After we’d passed down Lady Capel’s Lock 74 we were starting to have had enough of being damp. Our aim had been to drop down the two Cassiobury Park Locks and find a space there, but when a gap just Oleanna’s size showed itself in front of the golf course at Grove Park we decided to pull in early. We’d been aiming for trees and here certainly had plenty, but none overhanging our mooring which was a bonus.

At first Tilly had second thoughts about heading off to explore, but that soon went and she was off in the friendly cover and climbing trees under their shelter. She did however come back in time to help me inspect and measure the overalls I’d got the other day. With enough information now I can order the right sizes, along with a few the next size up just in case.

By the time we’d eaten our stuffed peppers it was time to join a zoom meeting on hot composting, held by the Composting Toilets group on facebook. A very interesting hour and a half talking about polystyrene versus polypropylene boxes, Audrey’s, thermometers, bark, cardboard and the virtues of adding nettles.

9 locks, 4.5 miles, 1 damp day, 2 boats passed, 45723 school kids, well maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, M25, 1 nod to DIT, 60ft, 4! 3 months rather than 12.