An even shorter run....

... but with some locks.

Karl was in need of water and wanted to move to the bottom of the 3 locks where the tap is situated.

Yesterday fitted in with my schedule of charging the batteries every alternate day incorporating this with a move when appropriate.

It was 11am before we were ready to set off on this epic voyage J

I went ahead and set the first lock and after both boats were in and the gates closed left Karl to deal with emptying the lock while I walked ahead to set the next one, the three locks here have no landing facility between them so you have to prepare the one ahead to allow you to leave one lock and enter the next without stopping in the pound between them.

With all the walking and lock work and chatting to gongoozlers I forgot to take any pictures.

Karl left the bottom lock first and moved onto the water point while I closed up and then moved ahead to find a mooring leaving the first mooring near the tap free for Karl to use when he had sorted his water needs.

After mooring I needed to run the engine for a couple more hours (the short hop wasn’t enough) to charge fully and later in the afternoon we strolled back up to the Three Locks Inn to quench our thirst after the exertions of the trip down.

Current Mooring:

That's Karl on the water point, left of picture.

Totals: ½ mile : 3 locks

This morning I decided to take a walk into Stoke Hammond for bread and milk and to stretch my legs, half a mile along the towpath then off down the country lane for a further half mile.

Not much traffic on my route to the village.

Stoke Hammond is a small thankful village.

The reason it is a thankful village

With a very unappealing looking pub, to me, (any pub displaying “Live Sport” is like displaying “Do Not Enter”)

But a very handy village shop.

I have a bit of time to kill before winding (turning around) and heading back again to where I moored over Christmas, more family events mean it looks as though the first half of 2017 is going to be spent travelling up and down this section of the Grand Union canal to enable easier travel back to Surrey, I can’t go by another route because winter stoppages ahead prevent it.

I have began stripping out the bedroom in preparation for the re-fit (as yet still undecided what it will be like), there’s lots of old MDF and timber to slowly dispose of and two halves of mattress which made up the bed, I disassembled one half (quite a chore) and disposed of that, but there’s no rush so at the moment it looks like a workshop, but I will get it done someday!

Now what to do this afternoon, oh yes, wash the floors....mmmm.....maybe.