High tailing it to Hemel.

Last night I was let out for a pint, at Wetherspoons mind, got to watch the pennies. I had a pint of Kiwi by Tring Brewery and a pint of White Gold from White Park Brewery and Helen a small sized seaside bucket of rose wine.

Once again we set off and very quickly stopped again at the water point. Mind you it was in stealth mode as it was well hidden behind the weeping willows. Whilst there we had a chat with the crew of 'INCA' and they were staying on another day. We waited a while to see if another boat came along but nobody did, so we were on our own.

We went ahead of the water pint and then backed back into the gap alongside.

We went through the three remaining locks it 'Berko' and were impressed with the pubs we passed. I think we will be mooring before the top of the locks on the way back. There were some good information boards about what was around the canal. 

I think this was part of the ship yard where boats and barges were built, but a lovely house now.

The Rising Sun pub by Lock 55.

The locks are awkwardly spaced being not close enough to run ahead and and set them ready and just far enough away so that it doesn't make sense to hitch a ride. That meant that there was a fair bit of hiking today. Guess what, Helen was driving today!

Most locks were left open, partly because there were signs asking you to leave them empty and mostly because there was a boat coming up. Before we got to Winkwell we had been told that the swing bridge was out of order, fortunately in the open position. Mind you when we got there the C&RT man was there but hadn't fixed it so we were straight through. I had managed to collect a punnet of blackberries and one of crab apples so I could make some jelly. We stopped just before Lock 65 and then I went back to the B&Q store and bought a padlock to fit on the fuel lock. We had done a load of washing so that was hung up too.

A fox in the garden opposite our mooring.

We went off to Sainsbury's and did a shop as our £8 off a £40 shop ran out today. When we got back I sorted out the elderberry cordial that I had prepared earlier and put on the blackberries and crab apples. After we got back there were still boats moving at 2100. So after being on our own up here there are plenty of other boats moored up.