Thursday 21st June
As the weather turned out to be a lot better than the forecast would have had us believe, this morning we set off early (for us) at 8-30 am. It is a very winding 7 miles over the summit from Fenny Compton to Napton Top Lock at Marston Doles then another 2 miles and 8 more locks to Napton. As usual we were following someone through the locks and there were only a few boats coming towards us so it took quite some time.
We decided to moor between locks 9 and 8 as there were a couple of 48 hour moorings with no one on them and we didn’t know if there would be any where free after the bottom lock because we couldn’t see round the corner. It is lovely and open here too. Also we can stop here tomorrow, as the forecast is for strong winds, then visit the sanitary station below the bottom lock before we continue our journey on Saturday, meaning I can do more washing.
We took himself to the pub again today, running the gauntlet of a seemingly stray collie dog on the way. It was lovely sitting in the garden until there was a shower. There didn’t seem to be a covered area and although we could have taken George in the pub there were several other dog owners heading inside so I took him back to the boat. By the time I got him there it had stopped raining!
There is a little shop next to the pub and we got a paper, some milk and another mooring chain, very useful. Tomorrow we are going to walk into the village which is about half a mile from here.
