Boats Everywhere

We decided that last night's mooring was the best yet. It was quiet, the view was beautiful and we had a great place to walk the dogs. We had a lazy start to the day, finally climbing out of bed at about 9:30. Once up though, we went on a long walk with the dogs, across the water meadows, initially in the company of a family with 2 greyhounds and a lurcher - dogs just like ours!


View back to Banjo across the water meadow



The dogs loved the long grass

We returned to the boat and set about doing the washing. Before we walked the dogs we turned on the central heating boiler to heat up the water, and it was piping hot as we filled up our little twin-tub. We hung the washing to dry under the cover on the front deck, and after breakfast, we cast off and headed into the middle of Guildford once more.

Preparations were underway for the water festival which takes place this weekend, and bunting and gazeebos were in evidence, as were increasing numbers of visiting boats. We stopped off again at Dapdune Wharf to lose the rubbish and refill the water tank. This was made a bit tricky since the wharf was full and a dredger was at work in the river, right in front of the wharf. We managed to turn around, just missing the dredger and then moored alongside a widebeam boat. Once the tank was full, we turnned around again, very narrowly missing the rudder of a historic barge and the dredger again.

Now that's a weed!!

As we cruised north, we passed increasing numbers of boats heading south to the festival. The good thing about this is that virtually all of the locks were set in our favour, meaning that we could go straight in without stopping to open gates.


Cute calves learning how water works

We decided to stop in Send, near where we moored for the night a few days ago, to let the dogs have a walk. The river here is very shallow, and as we neared the bank we ran aground. Getting 15 tons of boat off the bottom can be difficult and it took a while and the use of our long pole to drag ourselves free. We abandoned the walk - sorry dogs - deciding to stop instead at the next lock. As we set off again, we met another boat head-on as we approached a narrow bridge. We reversed back and almost became stuck on the bottom again, this time on the opposite bank. Off we went again, to the next lock where we met a guy on a bicycle who was holding a windlass. The lock was set against us this time, and he told us that two boats were approaching and could we wait for them. He was going ahead of the boats he was travelling with, to set the locks for them - Angela commented to him that she had never seen boats with outriders before! Angela and the dogs jumped ship at this point, setting off on foot for the next lock, with me trailing them from the river.

Angela, dogs and another water meadow

We stopped soon after this and tied up for the night beneath a large tree on the edge of the above meadow. We don't have a picture of the mooring tonight, but we do have this.....

Tonight's mooring from the inside!

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