By Thursday 22nd we were at Bulbourne where BW make lock gates. Just after lunch I was given a present. The chap from "Moonriver" was passing us, we first met when they helped us in the wind at Calcutt and we'd been leap frogging and chatting ever since, and stopped to give it to me. He had had a new boiler fitted and gave me a brand new glow plug that he now no longer needed for his new boiler, knowing it would fit mine. I also made some more Crab Apple Jelly and a small batch of Rosehip and Crab Apple to try. Friday we hardly moved, we had a lovely walk into Aldbury a pretty village, and managed a pint and a coffee in the Greyhound pub as well. When we got back to the boat in the late afternoon we were high and dry as the water had gone down quite a bit in the pound where we were moored. We sorted this by letting 2/3 lock fulls of water through the nearby lock, then we moved through the next lock to get out of that pound, which obviously had a water level problem.
By Saturday we were at Berkhampsted where on a recommend we had some great fish & chips, Sunday conscious of the need to press on we had a long day and ended up doing 16 locks which took us to just beyond Hemel Hempstead. Monday we did another long day so that we would have a couple of days in hand to polish the boat and do some touch up painting, we ended up doing another 14 locks leaving ourselves just 3 more before we get to Harefield. By the end of Wednesday we had washed and polished the boat and I had rubbed down below the gunnel and spot primed and glossed both sides. Thursday I started early 7.45am, and caught the train back to Frampton on Severn to collect the car. Not a straight forward trip, I ended up going via High Wycombe, Banbury, Birmingham, Gloucester, Cam & Dursley then taxi to the car, arriving back at the boat at 4pm. Tomorrow we move into the marina and sort out the boat and pack the car ready for our trip home on Saturday morning. The tenants are moving out by 11am and we need to be back by then to approve the inventory. That leaves us 10 days with Joe before he sets off on his travels for the next year.
So another voyage is complete, we have had a great time and will have completed 447 locks, 6 tunnels and about 700 miles, with the majority of our travel on 6 rivers.
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