Sunday was spent heading back downstream towards Aldermaston. The day was wonderful again, with blue sky and vapour trails. We arrived at the dreaded Woolhampton lock about 3pm and discovered that the lock was even more tricky going downstream as the current is pretty strong and things happen pretty quick. There’s a lovely old pub there called the Rowbarge where it seems crowds gather on a Sunday afternoon for a warm pint and to watch the canal boat carnage. We managed to only scrape the port side quite gently on the way under the traffic bridge so probably disappointed the crowd.

Monday we delivered the boat back to the hire company and headed for London so we could catch the train out to Hemperdon to pick up the camper. That all went without incident except that taking a family on trains and tubes is outrageously expensive when you convert it to NZ dollars (I must stop doing that).

Mark