View of Tempranillo from Museum at Stoke Bruerne (2011)
Our voyage down the Grand Union Canal has been quite uneventful but really enjoyable as the weather has been just perfect. Not too hot with a cool breeze. Our days of soaking up the sun and trying to top up our tans are passed. Well maybe if we were sat by a pool with a large G & T we might be thinking differently! But as it is we are just taking in the English countryside and wildlife.
We stopped for a pleasant sunny evening in Fenny Strattford. Though romantic as it sounds, the place itself was a little disappointing.
Fenny Stratford Lock which has a swing bridge right across its centre.
One evening we moored near a a White Lion.
There is a White Lion in this picture, if you look carefully.
South of Leighton Buzzard on the hillside in the distance we could clearly see the Chalk Lion of Whipsnade which was cut in 1933 as an advertisement for the nearby Zoo. Unfortunately I didn't have a long enough lens to get a decent photo of it.
At Cowroast we started the climb down from the Tring summit which is about one and a half miles long through a wooded glade. It was a beautiful sunny day and I was quite glad of the shade. The dappled sunlight looked wonderful and apart from passing two moored boats, we had it all to ourselves. I was enjoying it so much, I was too relaxed to remember to take a photo! Then at Berkhamsted we passed a Totem Pole (sorry, no piccie again).
The Grand Union Canal is no longer the 'M1' of the Inland Waterways as it originally was before the railways and eventually the roads took over. Most of the industrial presence is now long gone and I am pleasantly surprised at how rural and beautiful, and relaxing most of it now is.
As we approach the M25 it will start to get more built up and noisy.
