Gulliver’s Milton Keynes Club Site, Buckinghamshire

Yesterday we travelled across to our spot here in Buckinghamshire, along the A414 through Hertfordshire, then up the M1 through a southern corner of Bedfordshire. This camp is much smaller than that at Hertford with just seventy five pitches, but it is as busy with families with school age children making the most of the mid-term break. Despite the weekenders heading home again, back to work, there were no problems en route, however we did get away mid-morning, as is our usual practice.

Apart from setting up camp, we did nothing but venture out to the Lidl superstore across the town, and then saw very little but parks and trees and little evidence of anything else.

Milton Keynes is one of those new towns, where the overflow of the London population was steered to in the middle of last century. When it was formally designated a “new town” in 1967, Milton Keynes incorporated Bletchley, Wolverton and Stoney Stratford and the little village of Milton Keynes a few miles east of the planned centre. In 1961 the urban area covered by this was about 53,000; by 2011 it was 229,941.

As we drove across to Lidl, I remarked to Chris that it reminded me of Canberra, the purpose built modern capital of Australia, and this was confirmed when I read later of the design style that was adopted here in England, where grid roads and squares and intensive plantings, lakes and parkland are the order of the day, and where no building was to be higher than the highest tree.

Today we rose to better weather, a sign of another improved spell. After attending to a load of laundry, we headed off into the centre of Milton Keynes, guided by Tomtom, because without a navigational device, one would become hopelessly lost amongst the roundabouts and boulevards. Our first attempt to find a park was thwarted by a kind local who responded to my horror at the £2 an hour charge, by suggesting there was cheaper parking to be found the other side of the city centre, still within walking distance. In fact the entire “city centre” is a compact area, well laid out with wide avenues and town planning at the forefront rather than the offbeat whims of random architects. The shopping area is modern and spacious; in fact "space" is the one word that comes to mind as I consider the layout.

We spent a couple of hours wandering about, finally tracking down an internet café to have some printing done, examining the wares of several shoe shops before settling on a pair in the market place, locating a hairdresser who specialised in cuts rather than other weird and wonderful coiffures and acquiring the day’s newspaper to catch up on the latest opinions and scandal.

We seem to have encountered several strange connections with New Zealand of late; today my hairdresser told me she had spent two years working in Kaitaia, the small country town two or so hours north of our own, the Indian stall holder whose brother lives in Manukau, Auckland, where Chris lived before he moved north to live with me, (he showed us a YouTube video of a Kiwi girl making chapatti in his home province of  the Punjab) and then at the Marina, we spied a canal boat named “Waiheke”, which is the name of a popular island in the Hauraki Gulf to the east of Auckland. Strange coincidences indeed!

We spent the afternoon enjoying a section of the Grand Union Canal, initially making our way to the Milton Keynes Marina near Pear Tree Bridge. There we easily found free parking and set off in a southerly direction for an hour, covering the two and a half miles to Fenny Stratford Lock. Unlike our progress along the Lea Valley Navigation, we were not hindered by fellow walkers, or cyclists, although there were perhaps half a dozen likeminded walkers, and a smattering of chaps trying their luck at fishing, none of whom seemed to be catching anything. We were informed that there are rudd, carp and roach to be caught, or at least those are the names I remember. A few days ago in the other canal we had seen four kilo carp and smaller barbel spawning, a sight which was of great excitement to one who was looking forward to the Lea Valley open season.

Here, as along the banks of the Lea, we saw a variety of river boats, many of the narrow boats untidy, even eyesores. It seems that there are many who live permanently on their boats, few of whom have any desire to care, clean or tidy their space. Some seem to be used as garden sheds, full of long gathered bits that just might become useful, and some are laden with plant receptacles which makes one think the occupants would be better living on terra firma where they might keep a proper garden. Of course these are only our personal observations, but our comments and criticism might be more valid that some; we too have chosen to live a little off the grid and in confined accommodation.

We walked as far as the first lock beyond the city and surrounding parkland. The Grand Union Canal stretches for 137 miles between Birmingham and London, and has one hundred and sixty six locks, but the fifteen mile stretch through Milton Keynes is lock free until  Fenny Stratford. This particular lock has the smallest rise on the canal at just 11 inches, which begs the question, why have a lock at all? This was echoed by a couple passing through the lock while we watched. Here too there is a swivel bridge which needs to be swung out of the way for craft to pass through. We assisted in a modest fashion in return for information from the boatman’s perspective.

Back at camp we found some of our fellows gone; perhaps they had simply delayed their weekend departure to miss the mayhem on the road? The washing had dried and I needed to put my feet up again; tow path walking is both wonderful and exhausting especially when we are not renowned for wandering at snail pace.