Thursday 17th and Friday 18th October
We have really been into doing short trips just lately and the last couple of days have been no exception with yesterday’s trip being 3.5 miles and today’s 4.5 miles.
Yesterday we moved from Saul Junction to Cambridge Arms Bridge. We could have kept going to Patch but by mooring at Cambridge Arms we at least got a bit of a walk to the pub instead of tripping up and falling straight in the door! As it happened this was a fortuitous move because not only did we get a walk to the Tudor Arms, we also got a load of blackberries on the way back!
The blackberry picking did prove somewhat challenging though because most of the berries which were left were high up on the bushes and most of the bushes were also the other side of a reed filled ditch. This made it a bit of a balancing act. At one point Ken was practically hanging from a tree with one hand, to stop himself from falling in the ditch and picking with the other. During this rather interesting exercise he got a phone call as well!
At one point a chap walking his dog came by and asked if we knew we had to pay a fruit tax for picking fruit on his land. I said did he mean he wanted a bit of the blackberry and apple crumble and he said forget the tax crumble would do! When we had picked about 2 lbs of blackberries and eaten a further 2 lbs while we were doing it, we returned to the boat before one of us had a nasty accident in the ditch.
Today we have travelled to Sharpness and after mooring and having beans on toast we decided to continue our new healthy lifestyle and exercise routine (yeah right). So instead of taking the relatively easy option of going to the Docker’s Club we took a walk to The Lammastide Inn at Brookend which is about 2 miles up the road past the docks.
It rained a little on the way there but not enough to worry about so it was a really pleasant walk. We had a nice couple of pints of Bass and walked back. On the way back we procured some apples to go with the blackberries from a box at the end of someone’s drive. They were giving them away too which was a bonus. When we got back Ken decided to do some fishing and I decided to polish my wooden floor. This was a real hands and knees job and although it is a small area it took a bit of time. Considering the floor has had four years of hard wear (we don’t very often bother to take our shoes off when we come in for example) and I have never actually polished it before, (I only hoover and mop it) it has come up really lovely, just like new.
As I was about to dish up the dinner (I would like to point out that I have done dinner for the last 3 days) Ken rather inconveniently caught a pike!
I bet you are just dying to know how things are going with our toilet flush aren’t you? Well, as we know the pump is working we had to try other things. I took the fuse out to see if it had gone and it had. Something simple then? I put a new fuse in and tentatively pressed the flush button ………. nothing! Aaaargh, it wasn’t the fuse.
We have decided it must be the control panel. This houses the flush button and the red light which indicates that the holding tank is full. The next time we were going to empty the holding tank we filled it up to the brim with water to see if the red light would come on but it didn’t. I looked up control panels on the internet with a view to getting a replacement and discovered one for our loo costs £90!!!!!! Needless to say we are soldiering on with the squeezy bottle!
We are staying here tomorrow and going to the Docker’s Club to watch the football at lunchtime. A couple of useful things may be done beforehand you never know!
