Thursday 14 June 2012

Northchurch to Marsworth

On Tuesday the weather was cloudy but the rain held off. I was busy with work. Dale discovered the reason for the lack of reverse gear – a big tarpaulin had got tangled up with the propellor! Somebody's nicked our broom! It's still cold so we've got the fire on now. We bought 2 bags of coal from a passing coal boat. We went to Northchurch village at lunchtime to get some food - Northchurch is a pleasant little village with lovely allotments, a pub and a Tesco metro, a fish and chip shop and a café. That's all you need really isn't it? Wednesday (yesterday) was a day that reminded us why we are on this journey. The Chilterns are awesome! It was a beautiful morning and Dale heard a cuckoo while I was still asleep. Because I haven't got much work today we set off towards Marsworth. Met a couple at Cowroast who wanted to come through the lock with us on their boat. Because they were facing the wrong way they had to reverse in. They were very nice, they've lived on their boat since last November and they wouldn't want to go back to a house. They just travel up and down from Tring to Cowroast. We went through the Tring summit a bit gingerly because it can get very shallow. It took us about an hour. At the summit the banks rise to about 30 feet above the canal. We saw a kingfisher! Got to Bulbourne Workshop where they design metal sculptures. Dale had seen it on TV. Got to Bulbourne - a very pretty place. I drove the narrowboat into the first of a flight of 6 locks. We waited for another boat to join us. I can't remember the name of the boat but the couple on it were lovely. They have a mooring in Harefield and were on a short holiday. He was retired and she worked part time. They were jealous of us and were looking forward to when she retired and they could do the same thing. While we were doing the locks we saw a tiny adorable puppy. It was her first walk. She was a bichon frise/yorkie cross. The 6 locks went quite quickly because it was sunny and we were chatting to the couple. A lady came by and said she could tell Molly was loved because she walked very confidently. How sweet! We moored at Startops End by the Marsworth nature reserve. It is so beautiful here! We arrived at about 1.30pm and just had to see the local pub. The White Lion was sadly closed down so we walked down to the Anglers Retreat. What a great pub! Small and friendly locals pub just like the Tide End used to be before they did all the modernising. There was an African Grey parrot there called Rosie and she chatted away to us, but a bit quietly, so we couldn't hear what she was saying.

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