20th June '15

An early start (for us, 9.15) and as we we're undoing our ropes a day boat goes by, so we say, we'll see you at the next lock! Well we did, and they were 8 of the most delightful young people you could wish. They'd never been on a narrow boat before so we showed them what to do and gave advice and they were lovely. It meant that we arrived at a lock and John started the process, they joined us and then we left the lock and they did all the paddles and gates! Bliss. We were with them for 7 locks and 2 bridges and we were sorry when they had to turn around. They seemed very happy to help out and were grateful for our aged wisdom.
How different from a pair of boaters we came across moored at the base of one of the locks, no sign of life so we 'accidentally' bumped into them as there was no room, plus we had the other boat following us. A chap jumped out and said he didn't hear us coming and had just stopped for a cuppa, thinking he was a single handed I was about ready to calm down a bit, John had given him a piece of his mind as he scrambled along the gunwale through the brambles to get off. Then the wife appears, so I said we have our drinks on the move. He replied well good for you and they pushed off. Trying to be reasonable I thanked them for moving, when wifey points to our boat name , laughs and says what a stupid name for a boat. Charming!
Once we'd lost our escort, we did one lock on our own only to find Brimstone and Michael etc. our New Zealand chums at the top, so they follow us and we do the next few locks with them, so all in all its been a pretty good day.
Our mooring tonight is horrendous though. We're tilted up on a stone ridge with the gang plank....how I hate that thing. We're at Great Bedwyn and John reckons we'll reach the summit tomorrow so it will be all downhill to Bath then!
Now all I have to do is get him out of the way, find his Fathers Day stuff and get ready for the morning!