Today we set off in a cold blustery morning that we hoped would improve. It didn't.
We cruised a short distance and came to Somerton Deep Lock - this amused me mainly because there was a small town called Somerton near Yeovil and it was on top of a hill - not funny to most people probably - well most likely really - but it makes me smile, Anyway this is reckoned to be something like the second deepest narrow lock on the system at 12' deep,
Yes it is pretty deep, but at least I was out of the wind at the time! Typically it was empty when we arrived and as we were going down it needed to be filled first. The wind was horrendous and it was as much as I could to to keep the boat in the side while I was waiting for the lock to fill. I'm growing some pretty impressive muscles I think!
After the lock we went under a bridge and suddenly there was no tow path, I can remember this from the last time we came down here and can only say that nothing has been done to improve matters. We'd decided that we'd had enough and were looking for somewhere to moor. Then as if by magic, some pilings appeared. There was still no visible tow path but the large field was empty and so we pulled in and made ourselves at home and had lunch.
Then I looked out of the window and the empty field was full of cows. John looked out and happily told me there was a bull amongst them. I told him in no uncertain terms that he was now in charge of dog walking and I wasn't going outside the boat again. I don't do cows. After the briefest walk Paddy has ever had, John came back and asked if I'd like to move on. We moved.
The cows we left behind us - not the lack of tow-path although it was meant to be on this side. As we went further on the path became even harder to see.
In fact it disappeared completely behind a line of trees and shrubs. It ended up looking more like a river than a canal. Finally we saw some more pilings as the rain had started again and it was still really windy and we just weren't enjoying it, which is the main object of the exercise and so we saw some more pilings when eventually something like a tow path once again emerged and we moored up.
We had gone 4 lock miles in less than 1.5hrs but there you go, we're going in the right direction!
It became so miserable we lit a fire, John had to go and find some dry wood in the hedge to get it going but eventually we got a lovely blaze going. Then the sun came out and we've had a lovely evening - the boat is like a sauna but you can't have everything!
The forecast for tomorrow is better after midday, so I may stay up a bit to watch the results come in. There again I might not!
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