Monday 10th August: The rain promised for this morning appeared to be delayed in it's arrival. The forecast was updated to promise its arrival about 12 rather than 9am. So after a brief excursion down the first stretch of the Wendover Arm with the dogs we decided to move on with PO and explore hoping to moor up before the rain arrives. In the event we navigated the last few metres to the winding hole in the rain light at first but getting heavier. Managed to turn despite a wind pushing us the wrong way and got moored up and pram hood up before the rain got too heavy. The start of the branch is a bit unexciting as the hedges on both sides deny any view however after bridge 2 by a rather large working flour mill it opened out and we could see the fields and rural nature of the canal. The moorings at the end of the canal have a decent hard edge but no mooring rings and a lot of it is on a bend but we managed to find a nice straight edge and may well take advantage of the 48 hour limit to explore more of the Wendover canal on foot. The rain lasted until about 3pm and we then set off for a walk with the dogs back along the towpath to the mill we had past this morning. Later in the evening I went off for a quick explore to find where we can join the towpath towards Wendover as it does not carry on at the terminus as we thought it would. Encountered a police presence on the bridge looking for a jogger (not just any jogger but one in black shorts) however we have not seen anyone on the towpath this afternoon so couldn't help.
Back in the 70's I worked in Aylesbury and lived in Chesham and crossed a bridge over this canal by RAF Halton twice a day.
Tuesday 11th August: Rather grey start to the day and after a very peaceful night we had a lazy start to the day as other boats that arrived yesterday afternoon set off passing us to wind and returning past us again. Prepared for a walking day with sandwiches & drinks in the rucksack and set off down the lane to pick up the towpath towards Wendover. Mainly overcast and with light rain in the late afternoon it was probably better for walking than being too sunny. We walked steadily the unnavigable length of the towpath all the way to Wendover.
see http://www.bertuchi.co.uk/grandunioncanal07.php
Stopped for a sandwich and drink at the wide before Wendover and once there headed to High Street and had refreshments in the Swan Inn before retracing our steps back to PO. The information board on the 48hr mooring says 8.9 km to Wendover so I guess with the hike into Wendover we must have done about 11 miles all told! We were certainly all fairly cream crackered by the time we got back to PO for a well erned cup of tea.
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