It’s a beautiful day. It’s raining when I get up. It’s still raining when Lawrance gets up. So, with Lawrance on the tiller and me doing the locks, he’s in his fishermen’s gear, and I’ll try out his waterproof golf gear.
I know, how come he has all the right gear and I haven’t? Well, I don’t have the money for it…
Joking! I do have the money for it, but both fishermen’s waterproofs and golf waterproof are absolute expensive, so I want to buy something I REALLY REALLY like. All the fishermen’s gear I’ve seen so far is dark blue or dark green or camouflage colours. I want something more feminine. If golf gear works, I’ll have a look for some nice golf gear.
Anyway, when we set off it’s still raining. The Portuguese family has gone earlier; no doubt we will catch up with them.
It’s not cold, because there is no wind. So it’s a perfect day for a walk along the towpath. And that’s what I do. Meanwhile open the odd lock…
There is an oncoming boat in the second lock, with another boat waiting. The crew of the waiting boat is at the lock, actually doing the lock. And who’s on the boat in the lock? Exactly, our Portuguese!
They jumped right in front of this second boat, just to… have someone else do the lock. How they managed to turn around, no-one knows, because there is no winding hole. But then again, they’ve been diagonally on the canal so many times, it would have been a matter of: OK, use the bargepole on the other side of the boat and head in the opposite direction.
And that’s what they do. They’re going back to the hire base to take the boat back. It’s not the holiday they thought it would be.
To us it’s an easy and nice day. Last year I couldn’t do one of these locks, they were way too heavy. Now I do all of them; only at one lock Lawrance has to help me close the lock. So either they’ve done some maintenance on the locks, or I’ve got a lot stronger.
I walk two miles, do nine locks, eat lots of blackberries, speak to a heap of people and have a great day.
We moor up at Kingswood Junction. Lawrance has a catnap (he had a hard day on the tiller) while I, still full of energy, have a walk towards The Navigation, through the village and around the basin. It finally stops raining.
A good meal in The Navigation ends a perfect day for me.
P.S. No pictures were taken, of course. Not in this weather, and not when I’m doing all the work. So instead of a new a picture, a picture of last year, taken at exact the same spot we left today…
Alternative cratch cover
Oh, and the title of the blog is also not correct. I’m wearing my boater’s hat, so there are no raindrops falling on my head!