The Scouts, Day 2

Sunday 8th July, 2012 at Crofton Pumping Station.
Overnight the heavens opened, and it poured with rain. Our thoughts turned to our Scouting friends, who were camping a mile or so up the road, and to the groups of young people that we had met on the towpath the previous day who were doing a 100 mile hike in two days laden with the most gargantuan rucksacks!
In the morning, when the Scouts returned, they said that it was the wettest camping that they had ever known and their barbeque was less than a great success - a bit of a damp squib, one might say. They remained cheerful however, particularly after Sam decided to show off by jumping a large puddle, slipped and ended up flat on his back in the mud. Gales of laughter all round and it was declared the highlight of the weekend!

He came in for much good natured ribbing and required swabbing down and a change of clothes before we could proceed, including a pair of long baggy blue pantaloons that he borrowed from Becky, thereby generating yet more ribbing.

They had left their van close to the "winding hole" that we had used on Saturday and had walked the two miles down to us. So we set off west again, up through the six locks and through the tunnel back to their van. Today they were much more relaxed and confident with the locks and with driving the boat.

At the winding hole we dropped them off and took some group photos.

To our surprise, they presented us with a beautiful certificate signed by each of them and a lovely box of chocolates. We, in turn, told them that we hoped that they would come back again next year as we had enjoyed having them so much.

We waved goodbye to them and then sailed on down three locks to Wootton Rivers, a beautiful little village of thatched cottages and a pub called the Royal Oak, which came highly recommended.

We had an excellent dinner there and can confirm that it lived up to expectations!
Today: 4 miles, 9 locks and 3.9 hours.
Trip: 147 miles, 122 locks and 117.2 hours (261.7 total).