Saturday 12th May
Today started badly for the chap moored in front of us, he went jogging, came back and had a heart attack! At least we think he had a heart attack poor old sod, he didn’t look at all well and was taken away in an ambulance. We all hope he is ok. Ken and Barry have decided that they have the right attitude toward vigorous exercise, ie – avoid it at all costs!
With the flood restrictions lifted at Walsham Gates we left Pyrford this morning. At the first lock, just round the corner, my windlass swung round on the spindle and hit me on the top of the knuckle of my thumb, ouch that hurt! I was just getting over that when I noticed that I was bleeding from my other hand as well, God knows what I did there! I soldiered on regardless waiting for a third thing to happen. It did later, but not to me!
It was a lovely day, bright and breezy and we enjoyed the beautiful scenery along the way interspersed with the rather unusual locks. There are a few differences between the locks on here and most other locks. There are no handles on the gates to help with opening and shutting them, some have nothing at all and some have a chain with a bar through the end (see photo) to pull, the top gates have no ground paddles (usually, except Stoke Lock which had only ground paddles, see photo) and the gate paddles are really fierce, a tiny crank produces a huge torrent of water.
There were also a few difficult approaches to some of the locks, a strong weir alongside Papercourt Lock made entry a bit tricky (see Photo), Bowers Lock was immediately round a tight left hand bend and the lock approach was well before it on the opposite side. Barry went round the corner to let Barbara off before he realised the lock was so close. Ken got on the lock approach and I walked quite a long way round over a footbridge over a weir. There was only room for Ken on the lock approach anyway so Barry held the boat against the flow of the weir while we got the lock ready. Barbara had got off the boat without her windlass and as she went back to get it she slipped on a muddy patch, fell down and hurt her arm. So the third thing happened to her and not me!
Meanwhile there were a group of canoeists who had got out at the lock and instead of carrying their canoes the long way round to put them back in, or waiting until we had gone into the lock, they went in right where Barry was waiting and squeezed between his boat and ours which had drifted out at the front due to the flow of the river. One of them had a go at Barry about having his engine running but Barry either didn’t hear him or ignored him. As he passed our boat Ken pointed out in words of one syllable that Barry had to have his engine running otherwise he would have been carried back down the river with the flow. He also said that canoes were a lot easier to control than narrowboats and asked why they hadn’t carried them round to somewhere safer to put them back in! The chap muttered something about there being other users on the river and paddled off.
So after an eventful 8 miles and 6 locks we moored up at The Row Barge because it would appear the only places where you can moor up are at pubs! It is not a posh pub like some of the ones along here and the prices are very reasonable. Ken and I sampled the local beer and had a very nice bacon and cheese burger and chips.
Some of Barbara’s family live in the vicinity and shortly after we got here her sister Ann and brother in law Peter turned up. Some more family are coming tomorrow.
Our boat desperately needs a clean, I may tackle it tomorrow and as we are only about a mile and a half from Guildford Ken and I may walk there.
