A Unique Visit from "Hobbs"

Tuesday 28th August, 2012 at Hungerford.
A clear morning turned into a beautiful day, sunny and breezy. Our "no plan" for this week is to get as far as Newbury by the weekend, where we will moor MM in the marina while we go back to Reigate for a few days.
Last night, Karen and Jim had said that they would like to move on at about 8:30 in the morning, so we were breakfasted and ready to move well before that.  Jim came across to wish us "Good Morning" and, to his surprise, their cat "Hobbs" came too. Hobbs came right down into MM; Jim said that he had never seen Hobbs do that before on another boat. We felt very privileged!

Karen and Jim are planning to stay a few more days around Bedwyn, so we untied MM from "Ruffian" and they moved down to the water point while we re-moored MM in their space. We walked down to say cheerio to them and they showed us round "Ruffie", as they call their boat.  Hobbs is a very handsome, affectionate black and white cat, and he was adorable. How we would love to have a "ship's cat" (or two!) but our constant travelling back to Reigate makes it impossible. One day...?

There were nine locks down to Hungerford and it was pleasure to do them in sunshine and in our own time. At Cobbler's Lock (yes, that is really its name!), M met a couple out walking who told her of an excellent farm shop just across the fields, so we might walk there tomorrow - weather permitting.
The next lock was Marsh Lock, which is unique in having a swing bridge right across the middle of the lock so you have to open the bridge before entering the lock.

On the outskirts of the town was a final swing bridge and M walked ahead to check for mooring space. She didn't get far as she fell into conversation with Eileen and Dave on nb "Camali;" they remembered us from further down the canal. They were just leaving to go on to Kintbury, so we moored up in their space.
M had been running the washing machine as we were moving so once we were moored up, R put up her much loved rotary clothes line and as we set off for the town, all the towels, bras, knickers and socks were gaily flapping in the breeze. Narrowboaters have to be quite relaxed about privacy!!
It was good to shop in a large supermarket again after 10 days around little villages with only one small shop if you were lucky. Surprise, surprise we bumped into Karen, who had taken the train into Hungerford from Bedwyn to do some work - long time no see!
We had a nice relaxed evening, enjoying for supper some of the lovely home-grown vegetables given to us by Gay on Sunday, watching a couple of episodes of MASH (sadly we have come to the end of "Open All Hours") and fell asleep to the sound of the local brass band rehearsing in the Village Hall beside the canal. They were very good!
Today: 5 miles, 9 locks and 3.9 hours.
Trip: 239 miles, 244 locks and 201.1 hours (352.2 total).