Bottom of the Marsworth Pair to the BW Bulbourne Junction.

Monday 30th March.

Bottom of the Marsworth Pair to the BW Bulbourne Junction, 2 miles and 9 locks.

We set off at 9.05am on what has been a bright sunny day, after a heavy overnight frost. With there being no prospect of someone to share the locks and the workload with, we made our way up the Marsworth pair of locks first, before reaching Marsworth Junction, we were continuing on the main line, but do hope to go off down the Aylesbury Arm at some point. We made a stop off at the sanitary station to empty the toilet cassette, This area is also a BW maintenance yard. Having emptied the loo, we then had the prospect of carrying on up the Marsworth flight of locks. For a way the Marsworth Reservoir hugs the side of the canal, giving you some sublime views and lots of wildfowl. The Marsworth flight winds it's way up the canal and are really not to difficult to do. Keith and I have a pretty good system when working locks which are close together. I usually work one lock ahead, whilst Keith sits in a lock with Hadar whilst it is filling up with water. I usually walk on to the next one to set it ready. Once I have opened a gate, I then walk back to the previous lock and close the gates behind Hadar. It is one way of getting plenty of exercise, but it is also a really efficient way of working the locks when you have no other boat to share with. We arrived at Bulbourne Junction at 11.10am and moored up near the Wendover Arm. We took a walk up to the local garden centre, to look at their four wheel trolley, which we hoped we could use to carry coal, but having seen it we have decided it would be too heavy to get in and out of the hold. Back onboard I set about cleaning the brass work on the outside and Keith got to grips with cleaning the engine's metalwork. Hadar was then treated to a wash down, so she is looking spick and span for five minutes. A boatwoman's work is never done.