Sunday 10th April
Today we have travelled not very far in quite a long time! In fact we have come 4 miles and it took 4 hours. This was due to a number of factors including – 4 swing bridges, 5 locks comprising of two staircases (2 and 3 locks each), deciding whether to go up the 3 locks and a very, very slow hose!
We hadn’t far to go to the first of the staircases, Dobson’s Locks at Apperley Bridge and this didn’t take long. Getting up them was not too bad, it was the water point which slowed us down considerably. It made the one at Hazelford Locks look like the Niagara Falls! This time we both wanted water so it was a very slow process. Long before our tank had filled B and B had done a pump out, I had emptied my cassette, got rid of our rubbish and we had all had a cup of tea!
Eventually the water glugged to the top of our tank and B and B started their fill. It was decided that as this was going to take an age Ken and I would go off in search of a mooring. We got to the next staircase before we found anything. I had a word with the lock keeper about finding somewhere if we went up the locks, he said there wasn’t anything and we would be better to moor at the bottom. So we moored up and waited for B and B to arrive.
In the meantime George decided to take himself off for a walk to the top of the locks (I was with him by the way) and there were yards of metal pilings to moor up to up there! By this time B and B had arrived and we all decided to go up the locks because it was more open (more chance of a tv signal) and a better aspect up there. It was also a bit further away from the sewage farm, pooh! By this time it was 1 pm and we had come 4 miles!
Being Sunday there have been quite a lot of people about but it’s more of a through route than a stop and ask silly questions one! Besides we are grounded about 2 ft from the bank so we are a bit further away from the path with the grass verge between as well. The cyclists around here are manic though, talk about fast, they go past in a flash, all dust and small pebbles!
We like it here so we are going to stop tomorrow and investigate the woods, if our fat dog will go!
