Rain!!

Friday 10th August 2018 near Seend.
Yesterday evening, M photographed these teazels, jusy catching the rays of the setting sun.

The early morning sunshine was lovely but sadly rather short lived, as rain arrived by 10:00am.

We had moved up to the lock mooring to wait for a second boat to share the locks. A hire boat arrived
and we "buddied" up with  them and we were also joined by the "Waterbike" from yesterday - with a different volunteer crew as well as four extra volunteers to help them through the Caen Hill flight, which they planned to do today. Because the hire boat was quite short, we were able to get all three of us into each lock together.

R asked the gentleman on the "Waterbike" if he had invited his girl for a ride on his yacht! This amused them both but they said that they had volunteered independently and only met that morning.  They were smiling cheerfully, despite the rain which was just starting.

As we went into the first lock, R donned hat and waterproof! Probably only the second time this season that the latter has made an appearance.
There are five locks in this flight and we were now committed, so we soldiered on despite the rain becoming torrential. Luckily we had lots of volunteers as well as the crew from the hire boat, so M wisely decided to stay below decks in the dry (an occurence even rarer than the appearance of R's waterproofs!).

Everyone got very wet indeed. In particular the young lady on the waterbike, who had to stay on board in the locks to make sure it stayed clear of the narrowboats in the turbulence from the paddles as the locks filled.

Once we went through the top lock, we moored up for the afternoon behind the hire boat while the waterbike went on towards the Caen Hill flight with another 29 locks in front of them. One has to admire them.
R came back on board, changed out of his wet things and was rewarded with piping hot soup.

Just a week ago, we were eating salads, drinking ice cold drinks and treating ourselves to ice creams. What a change! Well, this IS England, after all.....
Not long after we moored up the rain stopped and the sun came out - typical! It gave the countryside a decidedly "John Constable" look.

The evening light was quite magical.

 

Today: 1 mile, 5 locks and 2.8 hours.
Trip: 197 miles, 88 locks and 125.0 hours.