grand union canal onwards towards London

view of the tunnel from the front of merlot      (   Wed 8th June  )

 view of tunnel from inside the front of merlot (those lights are my solar fairy lights!!

Wed 8th                                                                                                                                            Chugging along without incident (I am still bleary eyed)  operated and went through quite a few locks, then came upon the Blisworth Tunnel which takes around 45 min to get through - Trev's huge spotlight comes in handy now, all lights switched on inside the boat for extra light and we put jumpers on as the tunnels are cold and damp but quite fun, Trev said he could think of another way to make the tunnel fun - I have no idea what he is on about ????????????
Moored up for the night in a place called Stoke Brune, between two locks just outside a pub.  We had to pop in to see if the beer was any good and when we returned we found the front rope had come off and Merlot was half away across the canal - Whoops!!!
We moved Merlot as with all the emptying and filling of locks, we were pushed back and forward quite vigorously and would be constantly in danger of slipping the moorings.   Lesson learned . . . . .

Thursday 9th
Woke up with Merlot securely moored up just as we left her, then set off without further incident.  Quite a few locks on this stretch which I welcome - jolly good exercise especially for the old bingo wings he!he!

Later that day we moored up at a place called Fenny Stratford.  The mooring was behind the next lock.  Opposite the lock was a dodgy looking pub but the mooring looked quite suitable as Trev wanted to do some window sealing and painting ( the bank needs to be level with bottom of windows)
We walked to the shops and found a grubby row of shops (no food shops).  We decided to get a bus to the nearest town which was Bletchley,  a bloody awful depressing place but it did have a Wilkinson which I wanted for a pot to put my new herb in (fennel) and some carpet cleaner.   We also found a Sainsbury's.  We did our shopping and caught the next bus out back to the boat.  Trev undertook the task of re-sealing the windows then re-painting the frames - what a good boy - all is forgiven now.

Now when it tanks down again, we wont need to put cloths inside the bedroom window seal - the joys of living on a boat . . .
I felt left out so made a lovely shiny red box with a red knob on top and a red solar light on the side . . .

Im am not sure why or what I am going to do with with but its made now !!!!!!!!!!!!
Trev went to the pub whilst I made our supper.
We stayed for the night.

Fri 10th
Spent the day at Fenny Stratford, doing bits and pieces with Merlot as the weather was good.
I joined trev for a drink at the pub and found it to be a really nice place with a good atmosphere and friendly people despite its appearance  - never judge a book and all that hey.

Sat 11th - Sun 12th
Stayed put planning to set of Monday morning.

Monday 13th
Set off, went through a few locks.  Country side very pretty.  Passed through Leighton Buzzard and Milton Keynes without stopping as both places looked less than inviting and we had all the supplies we needed (in truth we have so much in the way of supplies,   we could get stranded for a few months and would not starve)
Trev will never go hungry with me around . .
We moored up in the middle of nowhere and stayed the night with plans to do more boat work tomorrow.

Tues 14th
What a lovely day, trev cracking on with the windows and painting, I am doing some repair to the cratch cover (zip need a bit of needle work) and catching up with blog.  The weather is so nice we decided to stay the night and have a braai (barbi) this afternoon. Yippeeee
Just a quick pic of trev enjoying a well earned relax  with a cold beer!!!!!!