Car Shuffle and Cleaning Day

As we moored up inside the marina last night, we did not need to move the boat at all today.

Initially we had thought that the car shuffle might take Mike most of the day. Although it is not far between Buckden and Gayton Marinas, most public transport routes go in contrary directions. Doing it mostly by train came out as having to go into London and back out again! Bus or coach involved several segments via Milton Keynes, Bedford and St Neots.

After we had tied up last night, Christine was chatting to a couple of neighbours and one chap offered to take Mike into Bedford where he works, leaving just before 8. An offer that could not be refused.

Indeed, at the appointed time Dave was ready and we set off. He had also looked up where the X5 Oxford-Cambridge stops that was convenient for his work route and hence Mike was already looking for a bus by 8:42.

The listed times from the stop gave the next service at 8:48 but nothing arrived so by 9:00 Mike, having discovered that it was only ten minutes walk to the main bus station, set off on foot.

The bus station was easily found and a local person, also waiting for an X5 said that in the last few days there have been several problems with running all the services.

However, the next one at 9:26 did turn up and after a driver change was ready to take on the new passengers.

It was just half an hour to the Market Place in St Neots (plenty of signs about the IWA Festival of Water are evident around the town centre).

Having established where the 65 bus starts from Mike went in search of a newspaper, returning in good time to discover that this service is by 15 seat minibus! It only runs twice a day - Mike's original plan had him arriving at St Neots to catch the second trip a couple of hours later.

It set off, perhaps even a couple of minutes early - with just Mike as a passenger and no-one else picked up on the way. The driver was even able to drop Mike at the entrance to the marina rather at than the timetable stop a short distance along the road!

Into the car, let in some air, set the sat nav and Mike was off almost as soon as he had arrived. The return trip was just over an hour and there were no real delays. He was back at the boat by 11:40!

In the afternoon, with most of the cleaning complete, we went to Tesco on the near side of Northampton, mainly for some stock item replacement and food for the return trip tomorrow. We will be going via Windsor to pick up Alice and Jess.

Time now to see how well we can minimise the amount of food that has to be taken home as we design our final dinner for this trip.