Buckby locks on the Grand Union Canal

Sunday, 14 December 2008 18:29

We said "goodbye" to Hadar just after 9 am this morning.

We had the flight of 7 locks in the Buckby flight ahead of us before lunch. All of these locks have side ponds, sadly disused now. The water is pumped up the flight and the pipes are visible at one of the locks.

We met Jo from Hadar walking Paddy at the bottom lock so had a natter and were able to say goodbye. We will probably see them again on the South Oxford as they have plans to go down too, soon.

It was strange as some of the locks were set and others against us! There was a lot of water in the flight flowing over the bottom gates when the locks were full.

The roar of the M1 accompanied us up the flight, particularly loud in the pound between locks 10 and 9, just before the railway bridge. At least the trains were not running as this Sunday is the last of the engineering work on that particular line.

We met one boat coming down and a fishing competition in the pound between 7 and 8. Slowly does it, so as not to upset them or their keep nets. On their part they had to shift, lift or slide fishing poles so I politely thanked them all as I went by! It made the entrance to lock 9 slightly more difficult as it is at the end of a big bend and under a bridge!

The long pound between 8 and 7 is very pleasant with a few old red brick canal cottages. The top lock 7 has water, elsan and rubbish and we pulled up to fill with water and "de rubbish"!

We had a lunch date with our friends John and Carolyn at the New Inn alongside the top lock. They were bringing our post as by car it is not far to where we are going for Christmas! It reminded me that we had taken 2 months to get from Reading to London - a journey of half an hour on the train

We moored up on the 48 hour moorings just beyond the facilities.

It was a good job we had booked a table as the pub was busy. We had a lovely meal with a very congenial "Mine Host" in attendance. We forgave him the website - apparently the canal is closed - the date? 2002! John did tell them it was a good idea to update their website!

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