I have realised that sometimes when you step off a boat onto the towpath you have few choices as to where you can go. Unless there is a bridge or lock gates straddling the canal you cannot get to the other side of the water. Sometimes on the otherside there is no towpath to walk along in any case. So it is with where we are now, but not because of a missing towpath. This is more to do with traffic and rain. The marina itself has a carpark but we have discovered that it is entered from a fairly busy, windy road, that has no pavements, so unsafe for a pedestrian to walk along. Our boat is also on the side of canal without any towpath so to go anywhere we have to walk across a set of lockgates to reach the towpath. That in itself can be tricky when you are returning from town with the weekly shop! And hampered again by slippery conditions caused by ice on really chilly days and wet on rainy days. Yesterday to ring the changes of our walk we decided on reaching the towpath to turn right, walking back in the direction we came from by boat. R thought it would be interesting to walk to the lock that is now being mended, thus causing the canal stoppage. We had only slip slided about 100yds when we decided to turn back. There was mud and puddles, that R remarked must have been similar to the trenches of WW1 – I could see why someone could very easily lose a footing and end up in the water! The poor condition is partly due to the weather but also, I think, is an indication of how many people enjoy towpath walks. The CRT is doing its best to maintain the safety of the towpaths around the 2000 miles of the canal system but as you can imagine it costs money they haven’t got. Hence why they appreciate any donation from those who enjoy walking the canal network.
With only one direction left to walk we retraced our steps and walked on in the direction of Linslade and Leighton Buzzard, thankful that the towpath into town is in much better nick, even tarmaced in places. Linslade morphs into LB but is a place in its own right and infact LB train station is actually situated in Linslade. To get a better understanding of the geography of the area we left the towpath at one of the many bridges along the way and completed an almost circular walk, taking in the Linslade area (I hesitate to call it a village because all we saw were private residences and rows of terraced houses), arriving eventually in LB by the Tesco bridge, thus able to complete our daily exercise walking back along the towpath towards our boat. On the left side of the towpath walking away from town there look to be large areas of marshes that would be great to walk in the summer months but I fear are too boggy at present so our walking choices are fairly limited.
I enjoyed some lengthy telephone conversations catching up with friends and cooked a vegetarian sausage hotpot in my electric robot contraption (basically a saucepan that heats up to different temperatures but can also be a mixer of liquidizer – very clever!) before settling down to our weekly church bible study on Zoom. Studying the wisdom of Solomon I was struck again by the story of the two new mothers, one whose baby died in the night afew days after birth, so she replaced it with the other mother’s living baby. Noticing the switch the mums argued and thus appeared before King Solomon who, after hearing their story, suggested the living baby got cut down the middle so each woman could have half. At which point the baby’s real mother declared the other woman could have him rather than he suffer and die. Of course, at that point, Solomon was able to discern who the babies real mother was and returned the baby to her. Such a chilling story but what wisdom to know how to out the pretender!
Another Vera episode (am determined now to see them all as we are at series 8 out of 10!) and bed, reading PD James ‘Original Sin’. R, who does not usually enjoy detective novels was quite gripped by this one, so I decided to read it after him. Partly so we can discuss who did it! Good to find new things to talk about when there is little dilution of each others company at present! Sharing the different aspects of our day used to enliven our conversation and I have always felt the importance of building friendships with people in addition to ones partner. For the majority, people need people, so it is of little surprise that the mental health of the nation is struggling at present in all sorts of ways. We try to engage, even if it is only a smile and a brief hallo, with anyone we pass on our walks. It may be the only interaction they get all day. And its not as if we are in a hurry!
ps Having just listened to today’s blog R said the scenario of the towpath reminded him of the choice we have of either following the Christian path in this life or walking an alternative route. Jesus did say ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’ (John 14.6). An interesting parallel to contemplate.
NarrowboatTLC 