Date - 25 7 09 Day - Saturday Start - 9 am Lechlade End - 1 30 Tadpole Bridge
We set off at 9 am and arrived at St John's Lock just as the hired narrow boat we had seen wind earlier was tying up in the lock so we slid in beside him. The steerer had hired narrow boats on the canal before, but this was his first time on the river and he suggested we left first. As we made our way to Buscot Lock a day hire cruiser caught us up. It had a family of Hungarians onboard, it turned out that dad was a surgeon in Swindon and the others were over on holiday with him, when we arrived at the lock we found a very stumpy narrow boat already at the front of the lock. The lock keeper was very concerned about me coming in beside him as the lines of the vessel gave the appearance of it being wider than standard, the little cruiser came in behind him. It turned out it was also his first time out on his uncle's boat and he also invited me to leave first. So off I went followed by the cruiser, just prior to the next lock we passed a canoe with two men and a young lad in it. I went into the lock first then the cruiser, the canoe started unloading to carry it round the lock when the lock keeper invited them to come in with us, once in another narrow boat, this one from Napton appeared, so the lock keeper did a shuffle, moved the cruiser across in front of us, took the canoe to the front and brought the other narrow boat in behind him.. After this the cruiser, other narrow boat and us shared the locks until after Rushey Lock as we stopped just through Tadpole bridge on The Trout moorings, we were expecting problems getting in but there was only one very nice slipper launch there. I went to the pub and made sure we were OK mooring there and booked a table for this evening. The Landlady said that last night the moorings were double moored and if the same happened to would I mind sharing, which of course is no problem. While I was there I thought I had best check that the beer was OK and took a couple of pints back to the boat. We expected the moorings to fill up rapidly during the afternoon as it was only 1 30 pm when we moored up, but as I write this at half five just one other boat has arrived, another narrow boat who has moored ahead of us where the slipper launch had been at lunchtime. You will find our latest position at http://tinyurl.com/Harnser-s-route -- Brian
