Saturday 28th September
It has been another lovely day weatherwise, perfect for cruising once again. We have travelled 6.5 miles and 12 locks from Compton to Swindon. It would have been 13 locks but when we got to Swindon we had to moor on the 24 hour moorings between Marsh Lock and Swindon Lock because the visitor moorings below Swindon Lock were full.
Unfortunately we were following someone (we eventually caught them up at Swindon where we both stopped!) so I had to set every lock. Despite this we only took 4.5 hours to do the trip and that included Botterham staircase and the 3 locks at Bratch, both of which can cause hold ups. We didn’t see many boats on the move today, infact we only saw 2 going the opposite way to us in the time we were on the move.
After mooring up we made our way to The Green Man for a couple of Cocker Hoops. There was a huge pile of cheese and ham cobs on the bar but we have had cobs in the pub (as well as our breakfast and lunch) for the last two days so we resisted the temptation – with difficulty.
I should mention that I have had a couple of disasters today. No change there then I hear you cry! We were leaving the boat to go to the pub and I was putting the cratch cover down when I caught my finger on a treble hook which had been left in there by my dear husband! Plasters and anti septic had to be applied.
Then later on this afternoon I went to get a bag of coal off the roof and just as I lifted it the whole thing split in half, depositing the contents down the side of the boat and down my nice pale grey velour sweat pants! A substantial amount of said coal rolled down the bank and plopped into the canal as well!
I said ‘Oh dear look what I have done,’ (or words to that effect) whereupon my piss taking husband appeared, grinning and proceeded to make the most of my misfortune. He said I should have asked him to get the bag down off the roof for me. I pointed out that the end result would have been exactly the same, apart from the fact that it would have been him covered in coal dust and not me. There would still have been coal every where and I would still have been clearing it up and cleaning the boat! It did take quite some time for me to clear up too, by which time I looked like a sweep. There were some lads fishing nearby and they must have wondered what the Hell was going on.
Tomorrow we are going to Whittington, location of Dick’s Grandfather’s pub – allegedly.
