21st June '15

Mid summers day!
We are really blessed with our travelling companions. Today we met a couple going into our first lock on a hire boat. We'd seen them at Kintbury and I'd thought then that he looked as if he knew what he was doing.
It turns out that Alan and Lynn had done a narrow oat holiday before and were falling in love with the life. Alan and I on the back of the boats (doing the skilled bit) and John and Lynn operating the locks (manual stuff) got a really good system going and we reached the summit, went through the tunnel and came down to Wooton Rivers, a total of 13 locks and 6 miles in 6 miles. We were delighted with it.
We were all getting on so well that I invited them to come around for a roast and really enjoyed cooking for a party. We eventually got up to the pub and had a drink then discovered that they shut at 10! Anyway we'd had a lovely day, and hopefully made some new friends. They may well hire a boat on the T&M next time so we shall see them in our neck of the woods, hopefully.
The moorings are again somewhat dubious. We're tilted at quite an angle, and have to jump off the front and stretch to get on again, Paddy is once again not too impressed.
It's 22nd now and raining, so we're hanging on for a bit as its due to dry up later, then head off towards Devises. Whether we get there or not today is another matter.