We got up early this morning as we needed to get to the top of the Watford Locks before they opened at 10.00am. If you are too late you will end up at the bottom of the queue. Normally there are not restrictions on lock hours except not going through from sunset to sunrise. The dry summer last year has caused a shortage of water in places so they are trying to manage the levels of water in the reservoirs.
This is what would have been the lock keepers toll house. As mentioned, there are a lot of volunteers that help the waterways maintain their appeal and their jobs will include lock keeping to mowing of lawns and planting of flower beds.
So we came up the ten Foxton Locks yesterday onto the summit and are now going down the eight Watford Locks to the valley floor. From now on for at least a few days we will be tackling lots of locks. This is rather unfortunate as Marlene and Wolfgang leave us tomorrow.
Such a picturesque scene and a scene only the countryside of England could conjure up. Just prior to the locks there was a branch that had fallen right across the canal so Wolfgang got out his trusty saw and with Frasers assistance to maneuver the boat into the right position they cleared enough of a space for us to get through. This wasn’t before a grumpy old man from a boat moored very close to the fallen tree yelled out not to knock his boat. It was hard not to as he parked so close to the fallen tree branch. We got through before he pulled out his shot gun and the couple behind us also got a mouthful of abuse from the crotchety old coot. There are just some people who should not continue to inhale oxygen.
Thought we would try out a video to see if we could put a few up on the blog. This is of Wolfgang on the Watford flight as the water was being let out of the lock. Click the link below
We had a short distance to go to get to the Welton Hythe Marina where they moor Ange De L’Eau during the winter. They also park their car here when they are out on the boat. A few maintenance jobs were done such as filling up with diesel, emptying the elsan (polite way of saying Pooh bucket) and then tomorrow we will fill up with water.
Wolfgang and Marlene are taking some stuff back to Bremen with them and emptying cupboards which we in turn will fill up.
There was the official ceremony of changing out the flags and ….
the flag raising ceremony of the new tenants.
Wolfgang kindly drove us into Daventry so that we could do a big food shop to get us kitted out before we leave tomorrow. It took us a while to make our way around the aisles as everything looked unfamiliar. Even so, we still managed to fill up a shopping trolley. It cost us £94 which with the exchange rate still worked out cheaper than if we were to go shopping in Calgary.
Daffy the duck on the front of the boat also got a name change from Bremen to Calgary.
We spent the remainder of the day catching up on various jobs and then in the evening we taught the guys how to play our favourite card game “golf”. We seem to get a lot of pleasure out of this drinking game without having a drop of alcohol pass our lips. Toque had a pretty quiet day and we are struggling to get her to eat more than one meal a day but we hope to get her into a routine tomorrow and get her walking a lot more which will improve her appetite. Wolfgang has now been beguiled by her charms whereas Marlene is already under her spell. She is going to miss them as already she is greeting them in the morning with a fierce tail wag.
Rowkin Rovings Blog 