Quite a busy day for someone who has got used to life at 4mph in the fast lane! The alarm woke me at 8am just when I felt I had finally got to sleep! Much of the night in that state between being neither fully awake or asleep I was playing over in my mind if we really should be leaving Berko. After all, what’s so bad about trailing heavy potty cassettes through the streets and having people wonder what they are? I omitted to tell you yesterday (spoiler alert: too much potty talk!) that I failed to notice, until too late, that I had not put the cassette fully back in place! Not a mistake you make twice, especially when you have someone else berating you for all the mess! Personally I found it quite funny because I couldn’t quite believe my own stupidity!
Once fully wakened by the alarm I shared my misgivings with R who did not see any problem at all with leaving so I set too with getting ready to depart. The first task was to get our clothes and sheets to the laundrette (literally a 3 minute walk from the boat) where I filled the biggest drum. The cleaner was just finishing sanitising so that was reassuring in itself. With half an hour to wait I returned to the boat and made golden porridge (addition of linseeds) and tea for R and myself. We needed a warming breakfast as internal central heating. Then back to laundrette for tumble drying. Another half hour so I treated myself to a quick shop at M&S foodstore, almost empty so early in the morning. A few treats to be had – excess Christmas stock such as hickory flavoured nuts. No idea how they will taste but that’s the advantage of R having impaired taste buds!
Clean, dry washing all sorted and we set off to Cowroast, a series of 7 locks, I think. The pounds are renowned for being shallow and just as we were getting close to one of the lock gates a CRT man on the towpath asked us to wait 20mins, that really meant 40, as they were letting water in from a higher pound and trying to raise the water levels. It is some tricky feat keeping a narrowboat in the centre of the canal (because the sides are so shallow you may get stuck in the mud or on the stones) for such a long time without mishap. It involves lots of tiny adjustments with the steering and some reversing so you don’t get too close to the lock itself, especially as the water entering the pound also changes the boats course. Still, I had a delightful chat with the young CRT man who is working long hours, with a depleted team due to covid, to keep the canals operational. He said most of his day is spent putting right mistakes made by novice boaters! He’s happy doing overtime now though because his chief pleasure (unsurprising due to his age!) is having a pint at the pub with his mates and obviously that’s not happening any time soon!
Eventually we move on and arrive at Cowroast in time for lunch whereupon the phone goes and one of my mums dearest friends is ringing for a chat. Bear in mind this remarkable lady is 94yrs young, she still drives a car, sounds on the phone like she is in her 60s because of the energy in her voice and still retains all her marbles! I have known her forever and know she is really missing my mum. They always laughed a lot together.
The afternoon sun shone so we had to take the opportunity to walk 40mins to Tring, where we happened upon the Tring brewery which was open! It would have been rude not to buy anything and anyway R had his rucksack just in case!
We had walked to Tring from Berko in the second lockdown which was twice the distance as coming from Cowroast. However the journey back to the boat appeared much longer after R found a piece of wood for chopping for the stove which was long and cumbersome. It was like we were walking in tandem! Will be worth all the effort I am sure!
NarrowboatTLC 
One reply on “Wednesday, 6th January”
Helo ‘M’ and ‘R’
Thank you for all the reports you are sending from the narrowboat….when I read that, it always takes me far away from the daily routine…I have to say that it is such a great trip and an adventure.
Tomas
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