Aylesbury!

Bulbourne to Aylesbury, 7 miles, 23 locks

After a hearty breakfast of Martyn's special bubble'n'squeak (special because it includes cauliflower) we set off at about 10:30am to tackle the seven locks down from Bulbourne to Marsworth Junction, where the Aylesbury arm joins the main canal. As we approached the last lock, I was astonished to see a boat moving with a clear intention of going through the lock backwards. A quick chat with the captain revealed that he'd just got the boat back from some friends who'd been borrowing it, but they'd forgotten to pump out the loo and the facilities to do that were about half a mile the other side of the lock. We tied his boat to Oothoon ("breasting up") and towed him down to the pump out. It also gave me a chance to empty the loo too; and for a short break for lunch.

The Aylesbury arm is a narrow canal--the first I've been on--and in another first has a two-lock staircase at the start (a staircase is where the bottom gates of one lock are the top gates of another). All rather exciting. Of course, being a narrow canal, there's no opportunities for sharing locks and if you're behind someone, all the locks are going to be set against you. Still, the countryside was lovely and the weather was hot, and the day whiled itself away nicely (although by 5pm we'd probably had enough, so it's good that the canal threw us a 2 mile pound so we could get our breath back). We finally arrived in Aylesbury Basin at 6:17, just as Chris had predicted we would. 

I'd heard from several people that the Aylesbury Canal Society (ACS), who run the basin, are legendary for their friendliness and sure enough there was a sign saying to find the "Welcome Boat". Having spotted it, I pirouetted Oothoon around while there was still room and reversed towards it. Out popped a man called Gordon who waved cheerfully and came to meet us. "Stop your engine and throw me your stern rope and I'll pull you in," he said, and was as good as his word. Even before I'd tied up, he asked if we wanted a mains hook-up and whether we needed to borrow an adapter cable (we did) and off he went to get it. All very simple--power here, 50p in the meter there, water point round the back; just knock if we needed anything else. And with that, he left us to it. Amazing. I wish everywhere was as welcoming and hospitable. I certainly have nothing but praise for the ACS.

The basin is slap-bang in the middle of town, so Chris and I had a walk in to see what was what. We tried the Odeon first, to see if there was anything playing that we fancied seeing, but there wasn't. Dinner was the next priority and I fancied Chinese food (probably through seeing ducks on the canal all day). We wandered around looking for a restaurant, but couldn't see one. Eventually Chris suggested that we ask at the Chinese take-away and they directed us down a back-alley just up the road. Turned out that the take-away was attached to a huge restaurant that had a choice of posh à la carte downstairs, or the £10.50 "all you can eat, including crispy duck" buffet upstairs. We decided to buff, and were delighted to find a huge selection of different dishes that were frequently replaced and completely delicious. There was even toffee-bananas, jelly and ice cream for pudding. Wonderful! I tried to be careful about how much I ate, but I think the pudding tipped me over the edge. I'm getting to be a bit rubbish about food, either with a stomach ache because I'm empty, or an ache because I'm full. Can't quite get the balance right.

The basin was very quiet once we got back and both of us slept soundly.