Day Twenty-Seven - Leighton Buzzard to Marsworth

We woke to hear from Brian to say that his trip has been delayed due to a dose of Ross River Fever. We were due to pick up Brian just before getting on to the Thames River this Wednesday. If he is given the all-clear to travel then we may pick him up a few days later at Windsor or Reading on our way to Oxford and then back to the marina at Napton. We were looking forward to seeing Brian so hopefully it won’t be too many days later when he joins us.
Henk rang Black Prince at eight o’clock to report our dead television and they got back to us an hour later to say that they were despatching another one from Napton. We have just under two and a half weeks to go on the boat and we use the BBC weather reports to give us a guide as to what we will be doing the next day. Sometimes we leave earlier or later depending on the weather. A very friendly young female boat owner who is apprenticed to Black Prince arrived with our new television. It’s very modern and this evening it had a lot of coverage of the Pope visiting the UK. It’s only the second time since Henry VIII’s reign has a pope visited this country.
Whilst awaiting the television Henk and I had a good look around Leighton Buzzard. It’s a good looking town with a range of shops along its High Street. We spent some time in a cosy tea room reading the paper.
We were going to set off straight after lunch but the rain came down in buckets. We waited for ten minutes and it was gone and we got underway. The weather is so changeable. The overcast sky of the morning cleared to a bright sunny afternoon.
Between twelve thirty and five thirty we did eleven locks. We were joined in the double locks by two young women about thirty years old. One had bought a boat, the “Leaky Cauldron”, further north and she was bringing it down to Reading where she will moor it. She is going to live on the boat as a cheaper option than trying to buy an apartment. The other woman was her friend who was helping her out for the day. It was good to have the company for the afternoon. You tend to share your life stories as you go about the business of getting through the locks.
It’s interesting asking the boaties how their boats acquired their names but many don’t know as they have acquired their boat second or third hand. They are all superstitious and won’t change the name in case it brings bad luck.
We meet quite a few eccentrics along the way. Today was a guy at one of the locks selling his 2011 calendar which is a comical look at the modern inland waterways. He lives off his boat and this is one of his ways of making a living.
We also bid farewell to two eccentric guys we have seen over the past three days. We shared quite a few double locks together. They have turned around and are heading north to get their boat back to the marina. We passed them whilst walking on the tow path to our boat this morning from Leighton Buzzard and one of them was wearing a red kilt. It matched his mates red Mohawk!
Photos: High Street, Leighton Buzzard; A Scottish kilt helps steer a boat; The boatman cartoonist; Last lock of the day - late afternoon at Pitstone Lock No 38.