More locks!

We survived the night and are up early and we now have a plan ! Captain Haddock has turned into Capt Ahab and the boat is moving faster to catch that whale ! After a pretty nifty reversing circle by Hugh ! The boat is being put into overdrive by Jezba!

Less boat weirdos today thank god ! We do meet our hippie friend from yesterday who seems to have a job watching over one lock ! It’s the Monkey marsh lock which is one of the last remaining pair of examples of turf sided locks once prevalent on the Kennet! Timber walled chambers and turf sloping away at the sides at 45 degrees - problematic as there’s a lot of water seepage! The hippie also explains the pillboxes ! Hitler wasn’t going to use the canals for a slow invasion at all ! It’s a north south moat when the bad boys invaded from the south coast ! A moated line from the Thames to the Severn - but of course they could have landed north of it so-who knows!

The weather holds and it’s a sunny day mostly and then we reach the pub again on our way back east at Woolhampton ! Jezba does some nifty boat parking ! Some fishing and then off to the pub for some libation !Read more