Bartimaeus

We set off early this morning without having had coffee.  The lack of caffeine clearly affected our ability to think.  Some time later we thought to fill the kettle with the bottled water that had been in the fridge since we got on the boat.  So now we were starting to get over the water problem.

We found ourselves second in a queue of boats at each of the locks on the way in to Stone.  It took us all morning to get there – the pace slowed by the intermittent locks.  We arrived at the water point to find ourselves third in the queue for that.  Fortunately the other two boats didn’t take long to fill.  We took a long time (Bartimaeus was thirsty for 520 litres), but nobody was waiting when we’d finished. We’d also managed to grab a bit of lunch, and a refill for the kettle while we waited.

The etiquette of the water point is that you get off it when your done.  Unfortunately for us, the only way forward was up yet more locks. So we went on up looking for somewhere to moor.  We found an OK spot to allow us to go and do a little bit of shopping, but it wasn’t suitable for an overnight stop.  So we pressed on through yet more locks, eventually finding a tranquil spot.  Our peace is occasionally interrupted by passing express trains – that beats motorways every time!