In the Leighton Buzzard area

8th Dec - Cruising Leighton Buzzard/Milton Keynes, Grand Union Canal, 1.5 miles 1 lock

OK so it was the washing!

Was pleased to see the services after about 10 days since the last service area.  Had about a third of a tank of water left, so it took a while to fill this time.  Rubbish off, phew that had built up a bit too.  AND on our last loo cassette out of the four we have on board.  Now you see why I was pleased to see the services!

Deciding to move out of the town area of Linslade, had a call on the radio from Moore2Life in front of us that there was a tree down on the towpath round the next bend, so slowed to take a look.  A huge tree too, and the boaters have obviously been chopping it up and cleaning it off the banks.  There is more than enough for everyone there, and we take a few branches for the roof, and one bloomin' great bit that we couldn't get onto the roof, so we bunged it on the back..... now this is where a cruiser stern comes in very, very handy!

No doubt Vic will chop this one up to last us a good week on the stove.  We will use about 3 tons of wood during a winter, this saves so much on coal.  The stove is kept in during the day with wood, and in the evenings when we want a bit more heat we mix this with small piece coal.  A shovel just before bed keeps the fire burning 'till morning.  There is nothing nicer than to wake up to a lovely warm boat when it's chilly outside. 

An unusual photo to finish with tonight.  It's not often a heron will stay put on the side of the canal when a boat passes, they tend to fly off in front of you to land a bit further up, and when getting to the end of their territory will swing back over the countryside to land once again behind the boat.  This fella seemed quite at home with the ducks too!

Well actually, it wasn't ONLY washing today, I did manage to get the rod over for about half an hour this evening, but I think the heron had all the fish........ still maybe I will have better luck tomorrow.