Back to Leighton Buzzard

We are now back in Leighton Buzzard after spending a week at Napton Marina while Colecraft re-did the interior woodwork on our doors and hatches, plus upgrade them to double glazing. The boat is now just the way we want it, with no gaps around the hatches or door. We just need to paint the door exteriors over the next few days while it’s sunny and warm.

Napton Marina

On our way to Napton we spent a couple of days in Braunston and attended the village fete and tried out two pubs in the village. We walked over Braunston Tunnel, a fairly steep hill, so we can see why they had to dig a tunnel and not a flight of locks.

We managed to pass through Braunston on our way back south before their Historic Boat Gathering, there is restricted navigation via the marina during the boat parade. 'Adamant' a steam boat passed us on it’s way to the event, I could hear him tooting his whistle around some blind bends ages before it passed us. A little steam inspection launch went by too. 

Lane over Braunston Tunnel

Over the tunnel

 

over the tunnel

 

 

Tunnel airshafts

While we were at the marina we decided to have a Tesco delivery and stock up before venturing south through very rural Northamptonshire.

On our travels back south we managed to have a BBQ and I did lots of knitting & spinning.

Ada and Dale visited on Father’s Day while we were at Stoke Bruerne and we had a nice meal at The Boat pub and spent the evening playing Northamptonshire skittles.

I tried a new elderflower cordial recipe which had a large amount of citric acid and to our disappointment it was quite unpalatable with little elderflower flavour. We made a second batch and omitted the citric acid and it’s just beautiful. We didn’t waste the first batch, John just added some yeast and it’s fermenting away beautifully along with two demijohns of elderflower wine.

RCMP officer looking afte the wine

July could be a busy month attending all the knitting & spinning meetings in Bedfordshire before we head off to explore lots more canals. We are just waiting patiently for things to go through with our house sale, so we can just sail away into the sunset. 

Dragonfly

Dragonfly

Birthdays weekend

 

John on Magnus' scooter

Josh blowing bubbles

 

Tow path partying

 

 

Last weekend we had a mega gathering at Aylesbury Basin to celebrate John’s 60^th birthday, along with my youngest brother-in-law Paul’s 50^th, Magnus’ 5^th and Samantha’s that was last week. 17 of us met for a meal in Aylesbury and all came back to the boat for a few more drinks and nibbles on the tow path. Luckily it was a beautiful day and we were all able to sit out until late in the evening. Samantha, Paul & Blue stayed with us on Saturday night and several other’s stayed at various hotels in Aylesbury. Heather & her family camped in Louise’s back garden.

Magnus on his scooter

Josh catching bubbles

Edmund spent a week with us, which was great to have help down the Aylesbury Arm with it’s 16 locks, which we did on John’s actual birthday. The balloons Edmund put on the boat popped as we went past brambles and the low bridges. We encountered some froth in one of the locks, which looked lovely but became rather nasty scum when it dried. The beginning of his week with us was a big washout as we got drenched in a massive thunder storm on the first day, luckily the weather perked up as the week went on. 

Birthday boy locking

Oh the froth!!!

We had a tremendous crew of 4 to help us back up the Aylesbury Arm on Sunday in the blistering heat. We are now making our way up to Napton, so Colecraft can sort out our leaky and draughty front door & side hatches.

Back up the Aylesbury Arm

Narrow locks & bridges on the Arm

We finally got our house sorted out and put in on the market and the first people to look at it have made an offer after just 3 days, amazing. As they are first time buyers it’ll probably go through in 4-6 weeks. It’s lovely to get cruising again as we’ve been hanging around Leighton Buzzard near the house for too long. Once the boat’s doors are sorted out we’ll head back to Leighton Buzzard to oversee the final bits of the house sale……..and then what!!!!!

One Sunday when we were at Leighton Buzzard we heard a ‘toot toot’ from the Leighton Buzzard narrow gauge railway, so we just had to stroll over and go for a ride. Sadly, the steam engine was being repaired but the little diesel one was lovely.

Leighton Buzzard railway

The end of the line

Waiting at a level crossing

Shunting our little engine

Today we saw our first CRT sign with their new re-branding logo on. There aren’t many people who like the new one it in comparison to the previous one with a bridge & swan on it.

CRT's new logo!!!!