Life at last!

Got some catching up to do this evening! Finally, I have managed to scrape 2 bars of a 3G signal with the phone propped up in the front cratch window!

One of the joys of boating is meeting some truely great people. This has been none more so apparent than the family we shared the Caen Hill flight with. They were on NB Sonata, an Ownerships vessel. It made life easier, more fun and the 4.5 hours it took seemed to pass so quickly.

Then we met Trevor. A single hander who has cruised much of the waterway and who we shared many locks with yesterday. We learn so much from him, shared so many great stories of his experiences and so enjoyed the passage together. I am thinking of heading North ontot he Leeds & Liverpool and Rochdale next summer so may meet him again as this is his home waters, (as much as a CCer can have 'home' waters!)

We were even treated with the experience of passing Oak and Ash half way up Caen Hill - the immaculately kept hotel pair owned by the retired vicar and his wife.

Today we made very slow progress. Started late as we decided to have a fried breakfast, stopped early to take on water and do some shopping and then crawled through some very 'interesting' locks before deciding to moor up early on the River Dundas just before Newbury and have a barbecue - well, the barbecue is still yet to come!

We also had to wait at one lock for the horse drawn boat trip to wind and return - of course we didn't mind this at all as it was a beautiful sight that snt shivers up your spine just watching! Incredible handling of the pair in a gale wind and so friendly to chat to - both crew and horse!

Tomorrow hopefully, Newbury and on to Reading for a pump-out and full tank of diesel for the return trip. Diesel down here is an average of 98p per litre whereas it is still 83-86p per litre in the Midlands - what a variation!