Thursday 3 September 2015

It seems like it rained for most the night although it is was not raining when we got up but everything was soaking wet!  We had 21 locks to do today to get to Stoke Pound which is where we decided to stop for the night.  We pulled pins at 9am and by 9.15am it was raining again!  Steve started doing the locks as he decided that if he had something to do it would stop him from itching.  We swapped half way through as it is quite hard going on this flight - whilst the lock that we are in is emptying the person doing the locks runs on to the next one and opens the paddles to fill it up then runs back to the lock that we are in to open the gates, let the boat out then close the gates behind, and run back to the next lock which is hopefully full by now so the gate can be opened! 

There are lots of locks on this stretch of the canal and we only saw two other boats yesterday and today we didn't see any other than the ones moored at the pub where we have stopped for the night.

We were just eating our dinner this evening when there was a rap on the side of the boat making us both jump out of our skin - it was the police looking for a guy called Ian who they had been told was hiding on a green or blue boat and they wanted to look inside - typical I've got the washing hanging in the bathroom and bedroom! They wouldn't tell us why but said that we had no reason to be worried!  Never a dull moment – shame the same can’t be said for the weather!

Setting off - first lock of 21 today!

More rolling countryside

Jumping the gates - this speeds the locking process up, even though I have to think about it before doing it because my legs just aren't quite long enough!

Looking back up the flight.

Closing the paddles.

Civilisation!

and the last of the flight today - we haven't seen a single boat going up or coming down!  Steve did say at one point - imagine how hard this is for older people - perhaps that's why we haven't seen any on this stretch.

The locks are fairly mossy - thankfully we don't need to push off the walls!

And suddenly there is this huge pub - and what a nice pub it is too!

A walk round the village - lovely cottages.

Another great country scene.

Is that smoke?  yes 3 September and we have lit the fire....