In search of Tring Brewery and a bit of 'Timothy West' style boat handling

With the carrot of not just a pub but a whole brewery, G accompanied the dogs and I up over the hill into Tring. This, however, is where it used to be (the Herbies had advised us to get the 500 bus from Cow Roast) and it's now another 1/2 mile or so out t'other side of Tring town centre

 Honey I shrunk the dogs

 You don't see many Tibetans and even fewer in these, almost identical to ours, colour ways - Baxter doesn't look very impressed

 G was, also, unimpressed with the idea of adding an additional mile on to his walk

 so we had a look round and picked up the bits we needed for Sunday lunch- getting ripped off (I felt) by the butcher

 before retiring into the Black Horse for a pint of the Tring Brewery Ale before our return journey to the end of the Wendover Arm

 On Saturday we set off in misty sunshine and rejoined the mainline

 Muttley started limping again so I put both dogs back on MR and we joined a single handler (Mke) in Cowroast Lock to start our descent from the Tring summit

 Mike was delightful and, although slightly older than me, incredibly agile. His approach to boat handling seemed to favour the 'advanced' Timothy West style. G left Cowroast first and Mike threw his rope onto his roof before jumping on; except his boat then left without him so he had to climb down the bottom lock gate to re-unite with it. Having shut both gates I emerged to find he was waiting to pick me up (I'd forgotten to say that I always walk) and he ferried me down to the next lock where a pair were now going down in front of us. I expected he would pull in behind, or alongside, MR on the lock landing but he just abandoned it on the top gates leaving me with a considerable leap for the bank - no problem for him! I politely declined any further lifts. Quite a bit of gate bashing occurred as we completed the 9 locks down into Berkhamsted, but he was good company, no damage was done and the mist had cleared into a glorious day with loads of banter with the plentiful gongoozlers; "where are you heading?" they asked, "Belgium" I replied as I trotted swiftly down to the next lock.

 A lot of people around with the well forecasted good week-end weather and more boats than I've seen in a long while

 We weren't the only ones enjoying the sunshine!

Then my camera battery ran out so no more pics.

 We tied up opposite the park by Waitrose and walked down with Mike to The Rising Sun for a well earned (well we thought it was well earned) pint and found - to our horror - that it was holding a beer festival (discounts for Camra members). We left Mike there and had an early dinner in Cafe Rouge courtesy of Tesco (you can print the rewards vouchers off locally now - no more chasing them around the countryside).

 It's a tough life.

Herbie aims for bridge 118

Having exchanged numerous texts with Kath on NB Herbie I was tasked with walking across the fields to check out the Carpenters Arms at Slapton for a potential dinner out together on Tuesday evening. It was a tough job but someone had to do it and  G couldn't as he was on a fast day it being Monday.

I reported back that all looked fine and the walk back in the dark should all be OK with torches. However, it rained heavily overnight and the following morning, so G and I walked over to check out the going; it wasn't good. So when Neil and Kath turned up in time for coffee and cake we discussed our options. I was more than happy to knock up some supper and G some pudding (rather than have a grim slippery walk home in the dark), but we had no beer on board only a couple of bottles of wine. Herbie had stocked up at the Tring Brewery and bought the cook round their flagon whilst they  went home for showers. We started the engine and tried to make a break with the beer but they heard us and came a running!

We had a brilliant evening - they are such good company - and, in our defence, the beer was 'only' a session beer and the bottle of Jim Beam wasn't full when we started (hick!).

 The evening lasted long enough to see in my 60th birthday - boating bloggers are just incorrigible; give them food, beer and musical instruments and they think they are twenty years old again

I think Neil had been fishing recently

After goodbyes and a very late start we heard the approach of a boat and dropped everything to pair up with NB Peggoty up the 9 locks to Marsworth whilst they waited for us - G didn't even have time to put socks on and my hair was dripping - somewhere around the 7th lock the sky went black and it snowed and then hailed with the temperature dropping horrendously.

 A pint and a bite at the Anglers Retreat restored our frozen sense of humour and, after an early night, we headed off towards Bulbourne on Thursday morning after a quick trip into the village to the post box.

 Marsworth Church

 Billy no mates all the way up to the summit - not even the boys with me for the latter part of the cruise.

 Baxter had done his daily quota and Muttley was limping badly - far worse after playing bundles with a Collie puppy, so he had to be put back on board too

 and, again it rained and hailed on us - but at least we were dressed this time!

 a last minute decision at the top to take up the welcome and hang a right down the Wendover Arm for a bit of peace and quiet for a couple of nights

 One industrial unit

 a couple of bungalows, then nothing but fields and sheep

Nice little mooring at the terminus

 Nothing but sheep on the horizon

Hooray - the computer it says yes!

After the investment of a substantial number of hours and a patience level that I can only dream of, my IT Dept. has restored the file links on the computer with only a couple of months loss of pics (a lot of which will be on the blog anyway).

 Daisy begging to be let in so that she could eat her dinner in peace (Milton Keynes mouse I think)

 and three out of four (there was another white one) of our neighbours at the 3 locks. Once the owner spotted Daisy he picked up a shovel and drew a line across the towpath - I later found out that the dogs  knew not to cross the 'imaginary" line without permission. Cool. Perhaps Sue should try the technique on No Problem's Penny.

I caught the bus into MK and was pleased to find that my eye was inproving - only two more days of stumbling about in my glasses. A relief as I'd all ready tripped through a hedge and scratched my face nose and mouth - not a look I'd recommend! 

Before we pulled pins on Saturday I walked into the nearby village

 which has the most amazing shop - post office, dry cleaners, garden centre, ... plus a good supply of the usual groceries and wine packed into such a small space

Unfortunately the main road  splits it into two. This is not the main road

We moored nearby The Globe in the nick of time, just  before this lot happened.

(Many moons ago Lesley, Joe, G and I headed for The Globe to meet up with The Dreamers and Greygal - however, they were meeting us at The Grove which is several miles and locks away!)

 So onwards and upwards on Monday sharing this lock with two shorter narras from the Lion Cruising Club who were out for a jolly and good fun to be  with

 So polite that they left the space right outside Tesco at Leighton Buzzard for us and moored up further on themselves. 

Stocked up at Aldi and Tesco making sure we did the 'Brits Abroad' thing - stock piling English mustard, T-bags, Marmite, baked beans and deodarant etc. Yes, I did say deodarant - evidently both soap and deodarant are very expensive in Europe: if they're not, I've had my leg pulled!

Moored by Br 118 at Slapton in order to try and re-arrange our meeting with Neil and Kath on NB Herbie for Tuesday. More about that on the next blog!