The mystery of the frying pan

After not managing to get out last weekend, this weekend I managed two canal walks in two days. Not that that’s a particularly amazing feat, but it seems so rare that circumstances allow us to just down tools and head out.

At one point I didn't think I would get out at all this weekend, I’d been roped in to 2 conference calls on Friday night starting at 17:00 and I was still on the phone at 19:00. It turned out a client had some urgent requirements and it was looking like I was going to have to work all weekend and possibly fly out to Austria on Monday. As it transpired, after a manic Saturday morning I had the afternoon to myself and had a relatively easy workload on Sunday. Austria is still on the cards but the urgency has dissipated somewhat.

Saturday was great. I was left to my own devices as Ellie had gone to act as a councillor for friend and so at the earliest opportunity I hoped in the car and headed out.

I drove to Marsworth and from their walked down to Bulbourne. I then headed back to Marsworth and carried on down the Aylesbury arm to just beyond Wilstone and then back. This route was pretty much dead on 5 miles and took in several locks and bridges en route. The going was, for the most part, good but got a bit soggy in places on the Aylesbury branch. This is the lesser travelled route as most of the walkers were milling around between Marsworth and Bulbourne, and so it was understandable that his section was less well kempt.

My thoughts were turning to the history of the Canal and the countless hours of hard physical labour that would have gone in to constructing everything from the heavy lock doors to the red brick bridges crossing at regular intervals. All of this for an industry that only lasted 200 years.  It almost makes me wish I’d paid more attention in history at school (but then again the canal system was neither the product of the Nazi’s nor the Romans so we wouldn't have spent too much time on them).

Of note was the rather bizarrely place frying pan tied to a tree on the off-side of the canal. It looked in pretty good nick too. I was trying to get my head round how it could have ended up there but couldn’t come up with a reasonable explanation.  Must have been aliens.

The wildlife was also fairly impressive. I know they are as common as muck on the canal, but the sight of a heron taking off mere meters in front of me was as alarming as it was graceful. I’m yet to see a kingfisher, but they are definitely on my list of things to look out for.

I could have just kept walking, but realised that I had to get back at some point so headed for home. The afternoon saw a rather cold BBQ at the in-laws garden (minus the in-laws, we just stole their garden for the evening). This combined with a few beers gave me a great night’s sleep.

Sunday was mother’s day. Mine was parading round visiting the ‘children’ (youngest of which is 30) and as such I was left waiting for her to visit my sister so I could pop round and catch up with both of them there. I was led to believe this would be early morning so pottered round the house whilst watching Ellie mow the lawn (I'm all for equality and stopping her would just be suppressing the feminist movement obviously) and waiting for a phone call to say she'd arrived. It became obvious that my mother was taking her time and so rather selfishly Ellie and I headed out for a walk so as to not completely waste the day.

Once again it was the grand union however this was at the request of Ellie. I was more than eager to go along with it and so we drove to Cosgrove and picked up the canal there. She knew this stretch as had walked it several times in training for her ‘Thames Path Challenge’ of 2013 which was a 50km walk. I knew the area a bit but had never walked down the canal here.

It was an uneventful 7 mile walk from Cosgrove to Yardley wharf at bridge 60 and back. This was in stark contrast to Saturday’s walk. There were no locks on this stretch, very few bridges and even less people. This felt more like a nature walk and gave some great views over fields and woods.

It was great spending some downtime with Ellie and just chatting about nothing and really helped to clear my mind a bit and focus on what’s important.

Again, the urge to carry on walking was strong but we turned round at the wharf and headed back so that I could catch up with my mother who by now had returned home.

Listening to my mum vent about her troubles really made me reflect on the peace and tranquillity of the canal and had cemented the desire to have a place to go to get away from it all every now and again.

And with that it’s back to reality. I've got a fairly busy week this week but I have a company meeting on Friday with a twist. We are all heading to Reading to destroy zombies with airsoft guns, as you do.