... they call the Rising Sun
Cowroast - Cassiobury Park
14 miles, 32 locks
Today was another beautifully sunny day, and unlike yesterday, we shared all of those 32 locks with other boats. We began the day by going through Cowroast lock, and passed the lovely Peggy's boat just below it at about 9:15. Last night I met up with her for a drink, to chat about boats and blogs. She writes The Real Life of a Narrowboat Wife about her life aboard with her husband and two young children. I've been following it for a few months now. It's quite different to the normal boat blog and worth a read!
We shared the locks of the first part of the day with nb Hilltop, crewed by a nice middle-aged couple who were out on a weekend jolly. We worked through pretty efficiently, taking turns at the steering and lockworking. At Berkhampstead we passed the famous Rising Sun pub, boasting 20 draught ciders. We didn't really feel like stopping, but James grabbed a glass and nipped in to get it filled up while the lock was emptying! Jolly good it was too!
Later on, we finally crossed paths with Towcester, a lovely large Northwich run as a coal/fuel boat. Julia sold us a rather large quantity of diesel, which left my wallet feeling light, and the stern low in the water with a full tank. But it is good to be able to support the fuel boats, and keep historic working boats in trade. Also, the diesel was really good value! Towcester covers the GU between Braunston and Aspley. She has also just got a card reader, making it even easier to buy on the move!
At Aspley, nb Hilltop moored up, but we picked up another boat to share with - nb Larkbridge, who turned out to be really good fun to share locks with. They had a bit of an issue with their raw water cooling system and so we moored up next to then to offer help since we used to have a similar system, and offered to tow them to the nearest boatyard should that be necessary. Thamkfully after James and Jeremy took they system apart and put it back together it seemed to work fine and we were on our way again. We continued to travel with them until 9pm when we both moored up in Cassiobury park. They very kindly invited us to join them for a BBQ on the towpath, which was delicious! We've just got back, full of food and are going to continue to share locks with them tomorrow until we reach Bull's Bridge.
Berkhamp*s*tead. Or Berkhamstead. Or a large number of other variants. But they almost all have an S in :-)
ReplyDeleteOr Berkhamsted :-)
ReplyDeleteUnless, of course, you call it Berko :-)
ReplyDeleteIf I remember rightly the Rising Sun will do a 'carry out' and if you buy 3 pints you get the 4th one free, or something like that. But certainly worth investigating on the way back :-)
Kath
Ah the Riser, totally responsible for all the boating nonsense that I find myself captured in. As a 'young person' of 13 I used to sit outside the Riser and watch the last of the working boats go by and said that perhaps one day I might have one - did not quite happen as I would have liked though. Glad you are having a grand time.
ReplyDeletePB