Berkhamsted Castle sits close to the canal so we decided to go and have a look round. Originally built out of timber the motte and bailey was begun in 1066. In 1155 Thomas Becket was granted the honour of Berkhamsted by Henry II, so he rebuilt the castle to show of his new status and to house his large staff. A large flint curtain wall was most probably built then, portions of this still stand today. In 1164 Becket was accused of embezzlement by the King and lost the castle.

The castle is surrounded by large earth works and water filled ditches to stop anyone from tunnelling under the curtain wall. In 1216 the defences were put to the test as Prince Louis of France bombarded the castle  with huge stones. Besieged for two weeks they only surrendered after orders came from the King.

In the 1830s plans to build the new London and Birmingham Railway threatened the castle, but there were concerns over the need to protect ancient monuments and buildings. Berkhamsted Castle was the first building in Britain to receive statutory protection from development, however the route still required the track to pass through the outer fortifications and in 1834 the gatehouse was destroyed.
The earth works are huge and the flint walls now surround a large lawn where once numerous buildings would have stood. Instead the 19th Century chocolate box Keepers Cottage now sits in the grounds only missing some rambling roses and a white picket fence. Entry is free and it’s worth the climb up the steps to what was the keep on the motte for the view across the valley as trains hurtle past. I’m not sure that the two ladies we met had chance to admire the view as their personal trainer kept sending them running up to the top of the steps, “We’re paying for this!” said one of them as the younger personal trainer checked facebook pretending to time them.
Sam from NB Red Wharf paused to say hello and ask after Tilly as we were having our lunch. Our paths last crossed with him at the bottom of Lapworth when we were making our way to Crick on Lillian. Have a good summer Sam and maybe our paths will cross again.
We had to wait for a couple of boats to come past before we could pull out, this would mean that the locks would need resetting for us. No lack of water as we  made our way to Ravens Lane Lock,in parts it looked like it was about to cover the towpath. Here and the lock before have new top gates and when refilling the locks, all paddles open they resonate and sing a note until they are all but a couple of feet full.
A hire boat was coming up hill and had to wait for us to come down as I’d not seen them until it was too late. The chap I was talking to said they would be heading on through Berko, the chap Mick talked to thought they’d be staying the night. At least I mentioned that Gas Lock was closing in the morning and they could end up being stuck for a day and half, I think they’ll be heading a bit further today.
Back in the land of leaving locks empty again and the boats ahead were leaving paddles up as instructed, at least both gates were closed so it wasn’t too much of a pain to drop them. Here the lock chambers leak and boy do they look like it, chunks of brickwork are missing in places and there are just only traces of mortar left between the bricks. Apparently they are scheduled for routine maintenance this coming winter according to the sign dated 2014.
The clouds around us got darker and heavier and there was a distinct feeling that the heavens would open any minute. Luckily we only had a few spots before we pulled up for the day. Our mooring is one we’ve used a couple of times before and featured in our Christmas card in 2014 on a frosty morning, today it is just humid and we were grateful that the towpath was on the opposite side to the side hatch, so we could have it open whilst Tilly went to find friends amongst the watercress.
6 locks, 2.22 miles, 1 cat lucky not to have been thrown in! 0 sign of swans though!! 2 visits to Waitrose, 1 very old draughty castle, 2 foolish fit ladies, 1 Lily Ann, 1st time spotted, 2 ahead, 3 left empty, 1 shiny boat standing out somewhat.

Cowroast to Berkhamsted

Oleanna was on what felt like a bigger list this morning, maybe the pound had dropped a little overnight. So before breakfast Mick  pushed us out so that we were slightly more level and would be able to keep the milk on our cereal. Outside it was raining and if we’d have been a bit more level maybe we’d have stayed put for the day, but instead we donned our waterproofs and made ready to push off.

At Cowroast we stopped to fill the water tank. Mick connected the hose and turned the lever, I held the other end and waited for the hose to be flushed out before popping it into the tank. All of a sudden the hose flew off the connector at the water point end producing a horizontal water jet straight at Mick who leapt out of the way. Good job he had his waterproofs on as he was dripping! With the hose more securely attached we continued to fill the tank, the exceptional pressure meant that it didn’t take long which was just as well as another boat arrived to go down the locks.

With Oleanna and NB Windruff sharing we suggested to the single hander that I’d open one of the bottom gates for him to exit and then Mick would move Oleanna over to use the same gate. This meant he could stay on board and not have to bow haul his boat out of the lock or climb any ladders and I wouldn’t have to do anymore work than I would if we were on our own. This all worked very well and despite the rain it was a good morning going down hill.

Our aim was to get past Gas Lock 1 which is closing for a day and a half this week so that they can reduce the water loss on it. Many of the locks on this stretch you have to leave empty. Either because the water in a full lock can seep through the chamber walls and flood nearby properties or because the bottom gates leak so much that if the top gates were to open over night a hole pound could gradually empty. Going down hill leaving them empty is easy, leaving a paddle up will keep them that way.

The route into Berkhamsted is full of willow trees and really quite pretty. Just a shame that the west coast main line runs next to it with it’s speeding trains all day. Down the last lock into Berko and we pulled in waving our companion goodbye. There was enough space for us on the 14 day moorings before the new 4 hour shopping mooring.

As we were leaving to go shopping NB Books and Spud was just pulling in. A boat in front of us had moved off since we’d moored making it look like we were hogging two spaces, so we nudged ourselves back to give them enough space to be on the 14 day mooring. We were just tying back up when NB Chance passed heading up the locks, they are another blogging boat that is for sale at the moment.

A walk around town didn’t find us a hardware shop, but the craft shop behind Waitrose came up trumps with some felt and cotton tape to put loops on our towels now that we have hooks. A few purchases from Waitrose, I had taken the time to adjust ‘My Picks’ before going so that our shop was cheaper than it would have been elsewhere and we got a free newspaper too.

I’ve spent the afternoon looking longingly out of the windows. It looks brilliant here, plenty of friendly cover, trees and sideways trees, but they wouldn’t let me out! Something to do with a big boat pecking Dad swan that wouldn’t leave us alone, I’d have shown him! That and his babies were exactly the reason she wasn’t allowed out!

7 locks, 2.68 miles, 1 wet day, 1 dripping Mick, 37 very fast trains, 1 mermaid, 8 tentacles, 2 towpath monsters, 1 nudge back, 1 Chance, 1 boat eating bully, 4 cygnets, 0 on at the cinema we fancied.

Bridego Railway Bridge to Cheddington Bridge, The Margees Garden.

As I stepped out of bed this morning I had forgotten that we were on a list to port, so I stumbled across the bathroom. Luckily the list was no more than it had been yesterday evening. When it came to pushing off  we had to do a bit more pushing than normal. The bow moved out, but the stern didn’t seem to want to go anywhere. With a spurt of engine Mick got the back off and then of course back on the bottom. A few toing’s and froing’s and Oleanna was fully afloat again.

We had been passed by a couple of boats before we started this morning, one was a hire boat with six grey haired crew. As we approached the first lock the hire boat was ascending, I hopped off and walked up so that I could reset the lock when they were finished. They seemed very keen to lend me a hand which was very nice of them, but I really didn’t need it so said thank you and would they wait for us to join them at the next lock. They thought that there might be a boat waiting for them.

Up we came into quite a low pound, we crawled our way along and could see that the hire boat was rising in the next lock along with another boat. We didn’t risk pulling Oleanna into the side I just hopped off the bow and Mick then loitered in the deeper water. There was a single hander waiting to go down and four of the crew from the hire boat stayed to help. It was quite obvious that this was their first time and none of them really knew how things worked. Once the single hander was down I said that I’d be fine on my own just as the chap who’d been at their helm came to chivvy them along.

Along this stretch there are either pumping stations by the locks of rather nice lock cottages that boast their build date of 1914 above the front door. On we pootled, at the next lock the hire boat had just closed the gates as we approached, the other boat had obviously got bored of waiting and gone off ahead. The hirers hadn’t thought of waiting for us, even after me talking to them about saving water by sharing. So we came up hot on their tails. A Red Kite swooped over head just out of arms reach, sadly I didn’t have my camera with me.

At the next lock we had caught them up so shared with them. It was now even more obvious that none of them really knew what to do, they were very nice with it, but I felt that the day was about to get very long indeed. Mick suggested that we go ahead to get the next lock ready, so I hopped on and we left them to faff closing up the lock. The boat ahead of them had waited, so we ended up sharing the rest of the days locks with NB Duxllandyn, leaving the hirers behind.

Mr Duxllandyn walked ahead to open Seabrook Swing Bridge for us to go through first as we were planning on mooring up soon afterwards. Under the bridge was a reed floating island which turned out to be covered in metal mesh a bit like a gabion. It moved as the bridge was swung and then Mick tried to move it out of the way, only to get our boat hook caught in it for sometime. At least it got it well out of the way for the next boats passing by.

Once round the S bend involving a rail bridge and marina we pulled in right in front of a house we heard a lot about last year. Cedarwood House was built by Alison and Laura from NB Large Marge in 1999. They lived there until they moved on board NB Large Marge three or so years ago. What a location with a fantastic view and mooring to boot. Mick headed off to a shop that the Margees had pointed us to for our Saturday newspaper.

After a spot of lunch we decided that we’d stay put for the rest of the day and do some jobs. Tilly was allowed out to explore whilst we got the drill and screw drivers out. Hooks that we’ve had since leaving Sheffield have at last gone up on bathroom doors. At last we can hang the bathroom window bungs up along with our towels. A clock has gone up in the bedroom along with a hook to hang Micks’ Akubra on. A couple of boxes of stuff have been resorted and transferred into storage boxes and my model of Oleanna has come out of it’s tube and is now under the TV, back on display.

They seem to think it’s good here. But I’m not so sure, where’s my friend Jaffa!? The new people in his house have a woofer and they have spent the afternoon pulling up green that my friends tend to like hiding in. And he then put the green onto a heap that fell into the canal!

7 locks, 3.61 miles, 1 swing bridge, 3 attempts to get off, 1 ditch crawled, 6 clueless crew, 1 floating paint scrapper, 1 sales pitch, 3rd viewing of Lillian, 1 unimpressed Cat, 1 paper shop, 1 house with a view, 1 number entered  in the book, 7 hooks, 1 clock, 2 storage boxes sorted, 0 tasty neighbour!

1 Big Happy Birthday to Frank from all three of us.

Fenny Stratford to The Globe,Old Linslade

Yesterday, when they had finished moving the outside, a couple of false stops and a long period of inactivity! I got chance to go out and explore. Some woofers and bikes kept me close for a while but then I ventured through the thick sideways trees. There in front of me was a huge wall of greenery, trees, plenty to climb and lots of opportunities to find friends. Once up and over the mesh that contained this green wonderland I forgot all about anything else, Wow!!!

This lush playground was one of the best I’ve come across, the hour and half I’d been given was certainly not going to be anywhere near long enough, so I just carried on exploring, jumping and climbing, this could take me days to do this new outside justice.

Darkness doesn’t bother me at all, cats have very good eyesight, scientifically proven you know! I started to head back to Oleanna as I was feeling a bit peckish and my food would have been sat there for a while waiting for me. I got to the edge of the green wall, but things were different. I could see the towpath, but no boats! I could hear Her calling, but no boats! Had they moved the outside with me in it? How could they!

I called to say where I was and She called back, but still no boats. Had the green wonderland brought me to a parallel towpath where I could hear them but not see them? Was I destined to spend the rest of my life running up and down the towpath following noises but never being able to return home!?!

Familiar footsteps approached, could it be that Tom had managed to break through from the other towpath to find me. A large beam of light swooped along the towpath and reflected in my eyes, Yes it was Tom! Thank goodness!!! I took some persuading but in the end I had to trust him to jump through the sideways trees on the other side of this parallel towpath and I would return to the outside I had left hours ago. I held my breath and launched my whole being at the sideways trees. There was my boat with Her calling from the side! I didn’t have chance to check that I had made the leap across in one piece I just had to get back to the safety of the inside.

Tilly was gone till after 11pm last night!

Today we saw to the yellow water tank and pootled up to the lock which volunteers had been painting between showers, luckily one of them came out to help, so no chance of getting black or white paint on me. Once filled with water we pootled along the pound leaving Milton Keynes behind escorted by Poplar trees most of the way.

Stoke Hammond Lock welcomes you back into the countryside and is the first lock where you can see where there used to be a second lock chamber with it’s two arched bridge. The pumping station was hard at work back pumping to try to keep the levels up.

At Soulbury Three Locks I emptied the bottom chamber of a foot of water as a volunteer came down to chat. There was one boat just starting to come down the top of the three locks, so once up the first lock would we wait to swap locks with them, certainly. Of course with the lock half full a boat appeared behind, so we waited for them to join us in the middle lock. NB Pond Life were on a bit more of a mission than us as they were wanting to reach Aylesbury before the weekend, so they left the lock first and we followed.

The canal wraps itself around small hills, nestling up to the railway at times and then turning it’s back on it the next. Not far before we moored up outside The Globe Inn for the day, one space left along the road, we grabbed it as soon behind us would be the returning hire boats. A few boats ahead was the familiar sight of Heather (Mrs Bleasdale) mooring up Tench right outside the pub. We had successfully managed to meet up with Alarum Theatre Company on a show night.

As soon as Heather had finished tying up she was round for a nosy on Oleanna and a cuppa. She had hoped to have reached the pub yesterday but a stoppage at Grove Lock had held them up overnight. Luckily C&RT finished their work on time and removed the stop planks, the other boats kindly letting Tench and NB Morning Mist through first.

Kate and the other Heather accommodated the pub somewhat by delaying the start of the show so that people could actually eat their food that had taken so long in arriving. But the wait was very worth it. Idle Women is actually two performances written and performed by the writers, Kate Saffin and Heather Wastie recounting the story of the women who worked the boats during WW2. Tench and the company are recreating the journey that the boats and trainees took through the summer and performing as they go. Bulls Bridge to Limehouse, to Birmingham, to Coventry and then back to London. We hope that on our way north we can coincide with them again and maybe do a bit of crewing too. If you get chance to see the show do, most performances are free, but donations to their running costs are gratefully received.

5 locks, 6.58 miles, 1 swing bridge, 1 empty wee tank, 1 full water tank, 1 last mooring, 2 cats next boat! 2 Heathers, 1 Kate, 2 great performances, 1 dry evening, 2 torches and mooring spikes as footlights, a little 2 much to drink.

Great Linford to Fenny Stratford

A perfect day for cruising, so that’s what we did, well for the morning. The hawthorn hedges are starting to turn white, yesterday their aroma was stronger than today, maybe that’s because we were in the countryside more yesterday.

The route the canal takes through Milton Keynes is very rural and only the number of modern road bridges crossing it and outcrops of rather ugly houses give it away. At Gifford Park services we passed NB Valerie, the hose was out but we couldn’t see Jaq to say hello, so we trundled past. Most of the recognised visitor moorings seemed fairly empty whilst elsewhere there were plenty of boats. This is the first time we’ve passed Campbell Park and there has been any space, in fact today we could have had a choice of where to moor with only one boat on the off side moorings.

We pootled along under bridge 84 which in the winter of 2014/15 was closed for months to be rebuilt. This kept us south for longer than originally planned that winter. Today it still looks good whereas others along the stretch have quite scary cracks in them. After a couple of hours we pulled in at the end of the moorings at Fenny Stratford, this end was closer to the shops we wanted to visit.

Fenny Stratford has quite a reasonable sized retail park nearby, within walking distance of the canal. First port of call was B&M to purchase new folding stools. We had left the three on board Lillian, so new ones were needed. They aren’t the most comfortable of seats, but once I add an extra pad to the seat I’m hoping they will improve. We have been missing them, especially Mick who now we had new ones could get his hair cut on the towpath again.

Tescos let us down, they had really good door mats the last time we came through, but today they weren’t up to scratch. So onwards to Ikea. Jaq’s last post (NB Valerie) had described a visit to Ikea in 2011 and the route that Les had taken her by holding her hand and running across the busy roads, scrabbling through bushes to reach the giant blue and yellow building. We’ve only been once before by foot and had a similar experience, today we were going to try our best not to get flattened so studied our google maps closely. That didn’t really help, one underpass and a crossing reduced the number of exceedingly fast roads to cross, but then we still had the two lanes at a roundabout. This was my first excursion without crutches and I wasn’t about to run anywhere even if Mick held my hand, so we had to wait for a suitable gap to appear followed by a scramble through a hedge to reach the car park.

Before anything else we headed straight to the restaurant mainly so that I could have a sit down, whilst we were there we found ourselves filling up with meatballs, oops! Then the list came out and we decided that there was no need to walk all the way round the showroom, which was a mistake as kitchen utensil hanging rails are found in the kitchen department not the market place!

Plenty of storage boxes were measured to check that they’d fit where needed, we now have all our nightlights in a box (except the lid won’t close). A new big sized roasting dish, extra plates, some new bed linen, we worked through the list crossing items off,. We now had a full trolley and three Ikea bags one already full with stools, so instead of borrowing a trolley like Les and Jaq did we got the number of a taxi firm and rang them.

We definitely now live in a different world. Once Mick booked the cab he then kept receiving text messages to say that the car was on the way, it’s make colour and registration number, that it was a minute away and would we like to watch it’s progress with their app! It all worked fine but being told ‘It’ll be five minutes’ would have sufficed. Dropped off at the end of the lane close to the boat we only had a short distance to walk heavily laden. Now where to put it all, well that was easy apart from the new roasting dish, I think we need an extra shelf in a cupboard.

There was a space a little further away from the road so we moved Oleanna up waving at the lady in the end house who waved back and Tilly headed off to explore. One of the new stools was put out onto the towpath and my boyfriend soon returned, replacing the long haired old chap I’ve been sharing Oleanna with for the last month. That’s better!

0 locks, 6.34 miles, 1 glorious sunny day, 2 layers less, 3 stools, 2kg sawdust, 0 mats, 7 storage boxes, 1 roasting tin, 1 hanging rail, 8 clothes hangers, 4 plates, 1 duvet set, 1 sheet, 1 bottle elderflower, 2 large meatballs with chips, £3 well spent, 1 waving lady, 2nd Fenny mooring, 1 barber back from sick leave, grade 3, 1 boyfriend.

Today Lillian has gone on the ABNB website, it’s a strange feeling.

ABNB Link

Grafton Bridge to Great Linford

Our mooring last night was surrounded by lambs and today we’ve carried on seeing numerous offspring as we cruised.

The first goslings and cygnets today along with numerous ducklings. Tilly has been grounded when we have young near by as we don’t want her falling in or encouraging them to play with her! This has meant her playtime tonight has been curtailed somewhat.

As we were about to pull out this morning a procession of boats appeared around the bend, once two had gone one way and another the other I pushed to bow out and walked up to the stern just as another boat came into view. All of a sudden we seemed to have joined the M25 of the canal world. In a long line we all processed on towards Cosgrove Lock. Here we passed NB Pengalanty the cratch repair boat. Allan has covered quite a distance, for him, since we last saw him in Braunston, we slowed to say hello but there was no sign of anyone on board, anyhow he’d most probably not recognise us without Lillian.

Approaching the lock there was a tail back and the boat in front of us was starting to reverse to let a boat past that had just come up the lock. Ahead two boats were entering the lock, so we pulled in where we could and I hopped off to go and lend a hand. NB Grace had had a lazy morning and were starting to descend. Our paths may cross again when we are all down in London.

A chap was on the water point below, we checked that he didn’t want the lock, neither did anyone else, so it was refilled for us and the boat ahead. More boats were pulling up behind, really hope not everyone is headed for London! A C&RT lady walked up to the lock and started to chat to the people from the other boat, she was very chatty asking how long they’d had their boat for, where they moored etc. But I could see through this and when there was the next lull in engine and lock noise I could hear her patter that we have heard numerous times up near Nottingham about becoming a friend of the waterways. Leaflets were handed out, but no promises of money from either boat.

As we opened the gates it was obvious that there were two boats waiting to come up, so both boats started to exit the lock, picking up crew as they went. This is when the chap on the water point decided to reverse back up the cut in front of us and at the same time in front of the oncoming boats! Reversing isn’t that easy and he certainly made it look very hard, in fact he seemed to travel further forward than he did backwards! By now the two boats wanting to ascend had done their best to pull in, one chap clinging onto his centre rope for dear life with his boat asquew across the canal. Coming up behind them was a widebeam and another couple of narrowboats and still the chap tried to reverse. “I don’t want to wind”, he said. To which Mick replied, “Why not!” under his breath.

Eventually, once quite a crowd had gathered we managed to get past him. By now crew from the boats above were getting impatient and I think getting on for 20 boaters were cursing the short reversing boat, he simply wouldn’t get out of the way. If he’d checked that we didn’t want water he should have then stayed put, waited for us to go past, let the next two boats enter the lock. This would have given him a clear 15/20 minutes to reverse and only be in the way of boats approaching the lock. What a Prat!

Our food supplies needed some boosting so we pulled up in Wolverton to head to the Tescos there. Once a partial stock up was done (Leighton Buzzard has a much closer Tescos) we set off again, hoping to find a space at Great Linford on the off side. We passed several possible mooring sights but carried on knowing that we would be very lucky indeed if there was space.

At the bridge before Great Linford we passed the Exbury Egg moored up on the off side. It seems to be THE thing to take a photo of this year, so here are my photos. Stephen Turner is currently touring an exhibition called Everything Comes From The Egg in which he has a range of artworks made whilst he lived and worked in Exbury and Milton Keynes among other places.

Our luck was in, behind WB Aber there was a space on the 48 hour moorings with the wonderful view of the park. Sadly we were just that bit too long to fit and Oleanna’s bow was going to end up being scratched in a very woody bush, so we pushed over to the other side. The mooring did have reserved mooring signs for the Exbury Egg this week, so we might have got moved on anyway.

1 lock, 9.22 miles, 8 cygnets, 1 twonk head, 9 boats with steaming ears, 1 very soya heavy shop, 1 tin of Spam, 1 large egg, 2 curtailed hours, 4 ducklings happily swimming by, 8 pork and apple meatballs, 1 duck discouraged to sit on our roof.

Nightingales Bridge to Grafton Bridge (or Drowning Lamb)

Back into winter woolies this morning, hope my beans have coped with the temperature change.

The stream of passing boats started quite early. We suspected there were a few ABC hire boats due back at Gayton this morning as three passed in quick succession. Then an hour later the stream of hire boats started to head the other way, these were all from the Wyvern hire fleet.

We pootled up to Gayton Junction where we pulled in behind another boat at the water point to top up. Once full we pulled back out and carried on towards Blisworth Tunnel. Blisworth is just short of 3km long and is wide enough to take two narrowboats passing, widebeams have to book and are only allowed through at 8am. The unusual thing with this tunnel is that despite it’s length you can see from one end to the other as it is dead straight. We could just make out the shape of a boat up ahead that we were following. It stayed in view until we reached the halfway point.

About a kilometre in the tunnel opens out where it was repaired back in the 80’s. The methods that were used here were being tried out for when the channel tunnel was constructed, large concrete hoops make up the construction. This however doesn’t stop water cascading in, luckily we’d remembered it being a wet tunnel and had dressed accordingly. About two thirds of the way through a tunnel light appeared up ahead, gosh it was bright! Had they not adjusted it to point up and slightly to the right? It stayed in view for a few minutes and then was turned out, it was the trip boat from Stoke Bruerne popping it’s bow into the tunnel for a quick look before reversing out again.

Some warming soup was needed before we could carry on and we decided to do the top two locks and moor in the long pound for the day. Despite it being a grey Monday we still had gongoozlers having their photos taken with us in the background. One chap exclaimed at how well I was doing driving the boat into the lock, “Isn’t she doing well!” Cheers mate!

There was plenty of room in the pound below so we pulled over to moor up, but Oleanna thought otherwise, her bow swung out back into the centre of the cut. Mick hopped off and tried pulling her in, but she wasn’t having it. A nudge along and the stern got stuck. Was it that the centre of the moorings was silted up and too shallow for anyone? Are we sitting too deeply in the water? Would Lillian have had the same problem? Was the pound down? We tried and tried again, but had no luck, she just wasn’t having it. Only one thing for it and that was to carry on down the locks.

Just as we entered the next gates a boat appeared behind us, NB Grace. Denise and Bob soon arrived in a pincer formation one from each side of the canal. With lock partners again we soon made speedy progress down the flight despite every lock being against us. I headed off ahead and set the lock below leaving Denise and Bob to bring the boats down and open and close gates. This meant there was little time to chat as when they arrived I was heading down to the next lock.

At the bottom we led the way out only to pull in a mile or so later. We waved goodbye as NB Grace passed, their aim was the Barley Mow at Cosgrove tonight. Our paths will cross again this week as they are having a break and have booked into a marina to go sight seeing in Milton Keynes. Hope that water is alright in the marina, when we stayed there a couple of years ago it tasted horrible, even boiling it didn’t work.

What kind of outside is this?! Behind the sideways trees are huge beasts munching and chewing away at it! Then across the way are fluffy white sheeps that I think I’d like to play with, but that would involve a bit of a swim. But the grass tastes good from the cat walk, so I suppose that’s alright.

Mike Todd asked about the soft shackles that we got at Tradline for our centre ropes. They are available to order from their website.

This is one of them in action with our two centre ropes.

Under strain the loop tightens and cannot come off the end over the knot.

When not under weight you can make the loop bigger, so that it will go over the knot.

7 locks, 6.53 miles, 1 tunnel, 5 mysterons, 1 full water tank, 1 new pooh bucket, 1 clean pooh box, 56 slugs left, 1 patronising comment, 1 moron, 2 shallow to moor? 2 deep to moor? 3 jolly Geordies, 2 hours, 0 drowning lambs, 1 stove ablaze.