Update - Now at Leighton Buzzard

We stayed a few days at Fenny Stratford. Saturday night saw the canal frozen again and we had snow,not a lot but some. We did a bit of Christmas shopping,a bit of bargain shopping and of course some grocery shopping. Our best bargain was an LED striplight from IKEA, list price £30 reduced to £4.90 because the 12v/240v transformer was missing. That's the bit we chop off and throw away because we run on 12 v!!

On Monday the canal had mostly thawed and in mid afternoon Phil on Hyperion came past. Phil is our coal and diesel supplier when we are down near Watford, he doesn't often come as far north as Milton Keynes. When he came back on Tuesday we topped up with diesel and had a couple of bags of coal from him too.

On Wednesday night the canal froze again but as another boat had come north and the ice didn't seem very thick we decided to make a move on Thursday. Bad move!! Even where the ice had been broken by the other boat it was hard going and they had only come about a mile. Once we reached virgin ice it was virtually impossible to make progress,after about another 500 yards we gave up and moored. It had taken us an hour and a half to travel less than one and a half miles and one lock.

Friday was exceptionally windy so even though the ice had thawed we didn't move. Saturday dawned sunny and mild, we made our way past Stoke Hammond,up through Soulbury Three Locks and onward to reach Leighton Buzzard. We are moored near Tesco at the moment, but it isn't cat friendly so we won't stay here very long.

This weeks journey's 7.5 miles, 6 locks and 1 swing bridge

So far this year we have travelled 875.9 miles, 675 locks,  55 swing bridges, 23 lift bridges and 31 tunnels

In 2011 we travelled 461.4 miles, 444 locks, 3 swing bridges, 34 lift bridges and 15 tunnels

During 2010 we travelled 740.3 miles, 642 locks, 53 swing bridges, 4 lift bridges and 25 tunnels

Since Ray retired we have travelled 2077.6 miles, 1761 locks, 111 swing bridges, 61 lift bridges and 71 tunnels