Rain

Saturday: Just lots of rain.
Sunday: 4.5 miles, 1 swing-bridge and 10 locks

On Saturday the skies were menacing and we decided to stay put. This was a sensible decision as it hammered down until about 5 o'clock.

And the Rain came down...

The 48 hour mooring behind us soon filled up with WPs.

We all needed to get off the boat by the time its stopped raining and we went for a nice walk. The views from the top of the hill were damp.

However by the time we got back Great Bedwyn was looking a bit better.

Jo went to look at the church, which had been having weddings all day from the sound of the bells. However, she was stymied by a railway line and -which was the clincher- a cow field, so had to be content just to take a photo.

We decided to get up early on Sunday so we could make some progress before the rain set in again and we were away at 8 o'clock. We got as far as the first lock (300 yards) when we met Dutch Barge Flint which was stuck on the bottom below the lock. We let some water through and then Harold came down the lock which was enough water to get it shifted. They were nice and friendly (taking the boat back to London to be sold) and we followed them for the rest of the day.

Flint taking up quite a lot of canal. We were glad to be following and not coming the other way!

We encountered a bit of tupperware that came in with us at one lock and then decided to follow on and do the locks on their own. We were very careful to keep Harold under control but they were obviously nervous about their bit of plastic being squashed by our 16 tons of steel!

It rained for about an hour and then gradually eased off for the rest of the afternoon. As we approached Hungerford Church swing-bridge, a nasty looking WP boat was across the canal (probably pulled off flimsy moorings by Flint). Fortunately Jo was walking and she asked a man in a nearby boat to help. They managed to move it back enough to let Harold past, but struggled to find enough rope or mooring pins to tie it back up with. Robin moored Harold at the swing-bridge and came back to help and eventually we got it sort of secured.

Insecurely moored WP boats are a pain. The banks are soft after rain and they don't pin them properly.

This one didn't even have proper ropes.

We found a spot to moor just above Hungerford lock and did our shopping. Robin walked Scooby by the river, which is close by. He saw a water vole, 2 grayling (which are fish apparently) and loads of brown trout. The boat behind us objected to us mooring close to them, but we feel it is important not to waste decent mooring space in busy places like this where it can be scarce and we stood our ground. Unfortunately, the boat was one of two which have been travelling the same route and general speed as us and we are likely to encounter them again. In the end we decided it would suit us better to be on the 48 hour moorings which had a space so we went down the lock and settled there. At that point the rain hammered down again but we didn't care!