To date : 313 miles, 167 locks
This morning we headed off in the sunshine for a walk to the
Peace Pagoda. It’s marked in our guide
book as worth a visit. The walking
tracks around the Milton Keynes area are absolutely delightful. There are long stretches lined with tall
poplars. The paths themselves are wide
and paved which makes for pleasant walking.
Every so often there are fields or play areas or a lake, always
surrounded by green grass and edged with trees.
There was a sign to the Peace Pagoda and the path led to an
overpass over a busy road, then to the bottom of a long flight of steps lined
with flowering cherry trees. A thousand
cherry trees and cedars are planted on the hill behind the pagoda. When you emerge from them at the peak there
is an enormous expanse of lush lawn leading down to a series of lakes at the
bottom. The pagoda itself stands alone
near the top of the hill and doesn’t look like much from behind but walking
down towards the lake and looking back it was lovely. A little further along the path was a Buddhist
temple with a pretty little garden. We
thoroughly enjoyed our walk.
Back on deck Mick got to tidying out the cratch… again. He’s obsessed with finding a place for
everything so it looks neat. I must
admit, I do like it better now. There’s
no clutter in there at all any more.
After lunch we all decided we’d move up to the visitor
moorings for access to Milton Keynes central tomorrow. It was only a short cruise. It was busy there at the moorings with only
one space available so we buttied up behind another pair of boats. A couple were sitting on a park bench just in
front of our mooring and we ended up having a good old chat with them. His sons were with them for the weekend and
they were extremely interested in all things Australian…. particularly
crocodiles, camels and tarantulas!
Somehow kangaroos and koalas didn’t quite cut it and that was all we
could offer personal experience of. Oh,
they did like the idea of seeing a brown snake in your garden. What a shame we didn’t have any gruesome tales!
The pair of boats in front of us moved off so we were able to moor in against the bank in front of nb Winton's Folly. It's not our preferred order of mooring as it means our engine is right in front of Barry and Carol's bedroom. With us being early birds we worry about disturbing them if we start our engine for hot water in the morning. We'll try to avoid this arrangement when we can.
Today :
1. Lovely walking paths between rows of poplars
2. The steps to the Peace Pagoda
3. - 6. The Peace Pagoda
7. Memorial to war victims
8. - 12. The Buddhist temple and garden
13. Don't know what these trees are but they're very pretty!
14. This house could almost be Australian.. maybe in Doncaster?
2 comments:
Hi Elly, surprised no one back then posted a comment to say those trees are buddleia They come white and purple a weed really they take hold anywhere self sown if conditions are right.
Ade
Are, I remember this day clearly too! You are certainly picking out the best of them to comment on. We have buddleia at our old house..... carefully planted and tended and watered. It's doing well now. We have never seen buddleia grow to the proportions it does in the UK so I thought this white one (I don't think I've seen them white at home) had me wondering what it might be. It was like a tree! Thanks for the memories.
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