Thursday 1st August 2019

Brenda ‘discovered’ a breakfast when the kids first came onto the boat, that they and us, associate with the boat and has become a firm favourite. Cheesy crumpets with bacon and Maple syrup. Lovely. We had this, Brenda and Eva went shopping and then we leisurely moved off.

We stopped the other side of the Town Bridge for the service point, only to find the rubbish disposal is no longer in place. We paired up with another boat for the locks which is always good to share the workload.

The countryside was quite stunning. Denford Mill being particularly picturesque. Every bridge along this section beyond Hungerford seemed to have a WWII pillbox and some form of tank trap. While most of the pill boxes were for housing machine guns, some had much larger openings to accommodate artillery pieces. It would have been deafening.



     


Kintbury





We moored at the delightful Kintbury, a beautiful place. We had a walk around the village. Very small but absolutely gorgeous, followed by a drink in the Dundas Arms. This pub actually sits on an island formed by the canal on one side and a mill race on the other. Eva engaged herself in one of her favourite hobbies of sitting on the lawns and feeding the ducks. Manny, unknowingly, “filtched” half of my cider. I have come to really enjoy the cloudy, still ciders in this part of the world and will miss them when we leave. We all took part in a leaf race which we all enjoyed, great fun and it costs nothing.





At the boat we met up with a couple we had last seen on the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal, Chris and Lesley. Since we last met them, they had travelled from Gloucester, the Shakespeare Avon, Grand Union and Oxford Canals, River Thames and the K&A Canal. An epic journey when we had only crossed the Severn Estuary and then spent the last six weeks or soon the K&A. 

The remainder of the afternoons and evenings fishing was not a particular success, only little tiddlers, although the kids still enjoyed themselves.

Day’s score: Manny 2; Eva 7.



Weather: hot.



Day Total: 3 locks; 3 miles; 0 Tunnels; 0 Swing Bridges; 0 Lift Bridges; 0 Boat Lift; engine running hours 2.8

Overall Total: 624 locks; 1112 miles; 49 tunnels; 47 Swing Bridges; 5 Lift Bridges; 2 Boat Lifts; engine running hours 705.7hrs


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