Thursday 7th May, above Pinkhill Lock.
Last evening, we walked to Rushey Lock and spoke to Graham, the keeper who will be retiring next year. He told us that his weir had only two paddles out of 34 open; in his experience this is not a good sign this early in the year. The ground is so dry that it will take a lot of rain before any run off into the rivers will occur.
He has kept all manner of Peacocks, Guinea Fowl, and has great knowlege and love of the river and the surrounding countryside. We enjoyed listening to him; on our way back, we saw a Kingfisher hovering in mid river just where the weir stream goes off, he then flew downstream and out of sight.
Today, I waited until the rain petered out before moving off, the rest of the day was bright but with a very cold westerly wind. Passing under Tadpole Bridge I met the first oncoming boat right on the sharp bend; this was to be the order of the day. The next three boats were all met on blind, right angle bends! We saw 8 boats on the move today, more than we had seen since leaving Teddington; the sole exception being the Bank Holiday Monday.
We were not in a hurry, which was just as well as the relief keeper at Northmoor was more intent on finishing a conversation with a group of walkers than he was of operating the lock. He was not in a good mood and barely spoke as we locked through, obviously our magnetic personalities had repelled him.
We stopped briefly at Bablock Hythe to have our lunch; moving on to Pinkhill Lock where we moored behind a wide beam boat ‘Thamesis’ that we had seen at Lechlade.
We spent a couple of hours on board with the owners Jim and Angela; they then joined us on Martlet for the evening and enjoyed a good old chinwag.
2009 Totals – Locks 156; Miles 238.5; Bus pass uses 2.
