After leaving the River Nene, we were joined by my brother, Jon, and nephew, Matthew, who helped us back up the 17 locks on the Northampton Arm to Blisworth, which is on the Grand Union canal.
The weather was beautiful and we flew through the locks and so it was only fair that we celebrated with a beer at the end.
We also got to witness an actual crash where one boat went too close to another boat and ripped an entire window off! The crash was caused by a third boat (a hire boat full of blokes drinking beer) who decided to turn round in the middle of the canal, rather than at the designated turning point – known as a winding hole. Rather than getting involved, we sat chatting to a lovely couple, one of which was also a retired police officer who worked in firearms and also hostage negotiations.
We then rested up for a day or so which gave us the opportunity to clean Daisy down and to go foraging to make a delicious crumble!
We then set off through the famous Blisworth tunnel, which is the longest wide, freely navigable tunnel in Europe (it is also, the third longest navigable canal tunnel in the UK and the ninth longest in the world). It is a total of 2,811 metres long and is about 43m below ground level.
Paul successfully navigated the tunnel without incident, and we even passed another boat without any problems. We were both very happy and our confidence in tunnelling has been restored!
After exiting the tunnel, we arrived in Stoke Bruerne which is a lovely small village with a canal museum.
https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/things-to-do/museums-and-attractions/the-canal-museum-stoke-bruerne.
We then carried on through Milton Keynes and Leighton Buzzard, finally arriving at Marsworth Junction.
From there, and on a very rainy day, we picked up the Ayelsbury Arm which is 16 locks each way.
It was easy to see that the arm is not used very often as the canal was sooooo overgrown, as you can see from the pictures below. It was also very low in places and the CRT had to cone out to let more water down.
We also used a fuel boat for the first time and suspect we will be using them much more in the coming winter months, especially when we will be burning lots of coal to keep warm.
Arriving in Aylesbury, we pulled up at the basin which is conveniently situated next to a Waitrose, and Paul was delighted to discover a Wetherspoons a stones throw away!
We spent a couple of nights in the basin and then moved down to the Aylesbury Canal Club where we were given free moorings to enable us to leave Daisy and pop back to Derby for a funeral. The Canal Club has excellent facilities and I was able to wash and dry about four loads of washing Everyone was very welcoming and friendly.
Once back from our flying visit to Derby, we headed back down the arm to Marsworth Reservoir where we hosted Jon and Kath for a meal aboard Daisy.
From there we went through Cow Roast (can you believe that is a real name) and Berkhampstead (Berko) where we lunched at the ‘Goat Boat’ and spent a lovely afternoon with Terry and Rosie, a couple who we randomly got talking to at the pub!
We were sad to leave Berko, but carried on through to Hemel Hempstead. The locks on the Grand Union are all double locks and are also extremely heavy and it is tough going. To give my knees a rest and to give Paul some lock practice, we decided to swap roles. All was going well until we got to lock 75 on the GU!
Paul stepped off Daisy at the lock landing and fell through a hole in the metal edging. He fell forwards banging his leg, head an falling on to his arm. I could tell from the sounds that this was not going to be good.
Surprisingly, I remained calm and was able to get the boat secured and get some frozen sausages on Paul’s arm . We had no choice but to get through the next two locks to somewhere where we could moor up safely. Once there, I put a splint on Paul’s wrist, bandaged it up and put it in a sling. Paul was going into shock and so I gave him some pain meds and wrapped him up in blankets and he soon drifted off to sleep. Luckily, we were only 2 miles from a hospital and so, in the morning when it was light, Paul walked to Watford General to get it checked out. It turns out his wrist is broken in two places.
Unfortunately, this means that our travels will be put on hold for around a month until Paul heals. Whilst he can just about drive Daisy, he is severely limited in what he can do and we dont want to run the risk of any further accidents or injuries.
Fortunately we have been able to ‘limp’ a bit further down the GU to a marina that is able to give us emergency moorings. We even managed to assist a fellow boater by towing them some of the way as they had broken down!
Zak also had a close call on the way to a marina! He was chasing a squirrel at a lock and didn’t notice that the green grass turned into green canal and so went flying into the water! Luckily he swam to the other side where I was able to pull him out!
We are certainly having the adventure of our lives and are taking everything in our stride.
We will use this time to get Daisy ready for the winter and to do a bit of painting.
We are still having the best time.
Love to all,
Jo & Paul xxx
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