"Simply messing...about in boats -- or with boats... In or out of 'em it doesn't matter. Nothing seems to matter, that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."
~ Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.
Most of the journey downstream was picture postcard lovely. Got bumrushed by large plastic hireboats a few times, but we just pulled over for a bit, and let them speed off down to the next lock. When we got back to 'Civilisation', it was a bit of a shock, because there were millions of people all along the riverbank. Never seen Reading so busy before. Narrowboats everywhere, of course. But most of the owners were in a remarkably cheerful summery mood. Lots of waving, smiling, and lifting of beer glasses.
Sumo travelled in the lap of luxury today, with his own air conditioning system. The fan only uses 1.3a. And it chilled him right out. He wouldn't budge.
The pumpout machine at Mapledurham lock is the best we've encountered so far. It has great suction. The rinse hose is as powerful as a pressure washer. And you get 10 minutes. Wehey!
We were shafted by a shiny shiny narrowboat owner at the Tesco moorings. They were berthed up, three abreast. Until they saw us coming. Then they pulled themselves back, into the last remaining space. Cheers for that, so kind. Thankfully, another narrowboat (Nb 'Eucalyptus') was just leaving, and they waved us in. Thankyou.
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