Sunday 21st July
Going down in the locks is much easier than going up, no reaching up with a rope on the end of a boat hook to a just reachable bollard, then holding the boat against the, in some cases, very significant turbulence as the lock fills. Instead, looping the mooring lines over bollards at ground level, and letting them loosen as the boat gently drops.
So we're doing a few more down locks than up ones, today's total being 11, probably more tomorrow. We've tied up in a very run down stop at Cussey, with no water, no phone signal, locked toilets, but surprisingly the rather vandalised electricity points still work! A walk into Cussey once it's cooled a bit, reveals a village also with no facilities other than a church.