Narrowboat Tacet

Silent Movement - Our gap year travelling the inland waterways



Tuesday 19 March 2013

Along the Aylesbury Arm

This morning we made our way up through the locks to Marsworth,
the pretty thatched cottage here used to be a useful canalside shop, not so any longer.
We stopped at the services at the site of the old BW yard, where all the old building have been demolished, leaving just the old crane and the building that used to be the southern BW offices.
We turned onto the Aylesbury Arm and straight into the top lock and staircase of 2 locks.
Back to narrow locks and very narrow bridge holes, and there are lots of both along this 6 mile stretch into the centre of Aylesbury. There is no shortage of water along here this year.  When we came down the Grand Union last year we couldn't go down to Aylesbury because there was none.

There is water rushing over the top gates at every lock and many places where the towpath is under water too.
The handrail on the locks is fitted to the wrong side for stepping across the gap when opening up and closing the gates so Ian's long legs and the boat hook were brought into good use.



It was a quiet and peaceful journey through the farmland,
only meeting a few fishermen along the way.
At Bates' boatyard there is a large collection of old wooden bottomed boats.



At the end of the line, we turned around and moored up in the basin overlooked by the Waterside Theatre.

Ivinghoe - Aylesbury
8 miles,  20 locks, 1 bridge

No comments:

Post a Comment