Friday 4th June

Another lazy start – I could just get used to this! A very hot day with little breeze – stifling. Millie was lying on the chair in the sun but soon retreated underneath it! We set off down the locks which are all narrow ones – only one boat can get in at a time. Richard usually does the narrow locks as he can jump over from one gate to another or over the roof of the boat. The canal is quite shallow and we did run ground once whilst pulling over a bit to let another boat pass. We stopped just below lock 11 for lunch – managing to find somewhere under a tree that we could moor. However we could only get one end under the tree so went for the back end – gosh the front end (bedroom) was hot when we left. After locks 12 and 13 the canal becomes VERY narrow as the reeds haven’t been cleared for years. We met one boat but he had kindly pulled over in a “passing” place! As we arrived in Aylesbury we were greeted by a member of Aylesbury Canal Society who made us very welcome - the best news though was that they had a laundrette!! It was very hot in the canal basin which we couldn’t get away from L so we decided to go into the town for a meal and found a very good Chinese restaurant where they had a buffet for £10.50 a head. It was very hot overnight and we had to resort to leaving the front doors open to keep cool.