Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Visitors first, then to the end

At the mooring by the meadow Rock n Roll were behind us and later Derwent 6 arrived and put their pins in front. Next day all three boats were cleaned for visitors. We spent a few days here watching trip boats; rowing boats and canoes go past the window. Mother duck came with her chicks for breakfast most days.

We are only half a days run to the end at Godalming so we had to get there. We are on our own for this trip looking out for the little boats. Got stuck on a sharp bend and waited for a few of those boats to pass.
We waited for the lock to clear but then at St Catherine’s lock the trip boat driver asked to go in first.
 It was a wide barge full of people who had parked their cars at Guildford. They could not be late getting back and there was no room for us as well. By the time we had got in another boat came to join us.
Only Broadford Bridge could stop us now with just over 6 feet air clearance. The lengthman advised us to remove most things off the roof to get under it, that we did, just.
Two more locks to get through and we reached the end by mid afternoon. There is not a lot of space here. The horse drawn trip boat occupies one space and we got another behind one other boat. There is a patch of grass at our mooring and despite it being close to the road it is at least quiet. Several other boats are on private moorings. While Ann was off shopping I was surprised to see Del at the window. He had come down on his bike to check out the mooring situation. 
 Next day Rock n Roll
 and Derwent 6 arrived, got water and found some spaces.

We are now as far south as we can get on the Inland Waterway system and have been in discovery mode since Henley on Thames. There are still some more visitors to come before we head north.

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