Cosgrove to Willowbridge.

Has been saddened to hear the news that Richard Briers has passed away peacefully at the age of 79. I used to love watching “The Good Life”. Such a funny man who will be missed. My thoughts go out to his family and friends. A legend has gone to join the comedians in the sky.

Travelled 12.7 miles, worked 2 locks in a time of 4 hours 50 minutes.

We said “Cheerio” to our weekend mooring at 8.30am and headed for the sanitary station to do the usual emptying out and filling up, but the time the water tank was full it was 9am before we set off towards Cosgrove Lock. I walked ahead to set the lock to find it already full, what a result.

Although it was cold, the sun was shining and there was no wind to speak off. We crawled past all the moored boats, waving to Hazel and Mick as we passed them.

Three days ago the Great Ouse had burst its banks.

This morning it was looking more normal and the flooding has subsided.

We did not stop at Old Wolverton for Tesco, because we will be in Leighton Buzzard tomorrow and I will shop there. Since we came through in 2010 all the apartments have now been finished and are being lived in. There was no stopping for us at Milton Keynes because there are to many boats now moored in and around Milton Keynes, It seemed to be wall to wall boats so no where for us to moor which would have been deep enough, so we carried on to Willowbridge Marina.

 

At Fenny Stratford there was also no mooring spaces, so we decided to carry on, as we approached the lock a boat was leaving the lock open for us another good result. As we left the lock we left the gate open for a boat approaching, I love it when a plan comes together LOL.

After a really pleasant journey we moored up opposite Willowbridge Marina, where the water was deep and the towpath in food fettle, which makes a nice change. We did notice since leaving Cosgrove there has been quite a lot of cutting back of trees on both sides of the canal through Milton Keynes, and a lot of back filling behind piling, especially at Campbell Park, which was desperately needed it, so it looks like C&RT has been very busy of late.