Bartimaeus

The last turning point was not only overgrown but had rounded walls that made turning harder as they curved towards the space rather than making a U shape. It was an achievement for Shane to manage with no touching of the walls and no spotter or fending at the front. We then drove to the visitor moorings. 

Having reached the last turning point, and moored up, we walked to the end of the canal. Our friend Peter had asked for a selfie and Mugs suggested this reaching the end spot seemed a good time. I tried my hand at a selfie to send to him. 

After our walk Margaret planned to cook a meal. She had an idea to help with her knitting first though. We both do skein winding with our husbands and she had found recently that Roland did well at winding the ball while I had said Shane was good at holding the skein and moving it in time with the winder. She wondered if they would make a good team and she was soon going to need another ball. They agreed and she passed them a skein and I went to help her prepare dinner. But had to break off to help with getting the ties off the skein as that was a task neither of them had done before. They were getting along fine. The cooking was going swiftly too. Mugs and I set the tables up outside and called them. They had seemed so close but we had finished first as a tangle had defeated them near the end. We had a delicious dinner, recipe I might try myself some time, and then Shane spent quite a while disentangling the end of the skein to make a ball.

The next day we had a day of very little travel. Shane reversed to the end of the canal, or as close to the stones as he dared, so that the boat had made it there too and then we returned to our mooring, forwards.

There was a sense of satisfaction getting there when it was shallow and little travelled yet it is not a silver propeller location. Enough people already do this canal, though we haven’t met many moving boats. There was one moored behind us on the visitor mooring which only had space for two boats. The young man came to speak to us and recommended a pub or hotel as having good fish and chips. We had wanted to find a place to eat. We got the impression he was referring to one in Wales, the village, not the principality, and while we had found places to slake our thirst, we had not located somewhere serving dinner. Much internet searching commenced and we went a walk to Wales with Roland striding out to complete his goal. He went in to ask and returned. The hotel in Wales did not serve dinner. We found lunch though. Then enjoyed the sun in the afternoon when I achieved my goal of finishing the cardigan and then further searching there was a suggestion of a pub and very good it was too, even if it was a sweaty sprint to get there. At least it was a day when we hadn’t done locks in the sunshine all morning. After such a hard search it was like finding gold to get there. The Beehive was a hit and so was the local beer, the bees knees. We all had one and were ready for it after the rush to get there. It was a more leisurely walk home and we got to see a sunset too.

The next day my phone was pinging since it was my birthday. Mugs had bought a present of socks wool with special extra colours for the heel toe and cuff, plus a Scots language teatowel which was fun as there were a couple we didn’t even know ourselves. Shane cycled to the shop for bread, and came back with flowers as well as his loaf. I didn’t have a vase but a jar of jalapeños and olives was thoroughly washed and pressed into service.

We had a busy day ahead of us working through the locks to get back towards a train station for Mugs and Roland’s departure the next day. Shane drove, while the rest of us did a mix of positions at the locks. Mostly Roland was working the lock ahead to get it ready. There were no other boats and no delays. A man who was passing with his dog said to me, “If locking was in the Olympics, you would get a gold medal!” What a team!

There was a slight delay at one lock, as a cygnet swam in and was not happy to be with us and trying to get out. Roland tried to coax it in the right direction. The parent came looking but was on the other side of the boat so could hear cheeping but not see the cygnet. Eventually Roland hit on the idea of sprinkling grass on the water and that brought the cygnet to where he wanted it to go.

In all, 22 locks were done, with a convenient break for ice cream (and lunch) at lunch time. We had a birthday cake that Mugs and Roland had bought, lolling around in the heat, then prosecco and olives before tea. A great day with plenty to celebrate!