Final treat

We got a bonus treat today to end our holiday. A couple visiting from America wanted to go on a boat trip, so we volunteered to take them and their hosts on Warrior to have lunch at Wheaton Aston. Harold in particular, a tractor collector, was very interested in the various engines (including ours of course) and the mechanics of boats and canals and locks. We had a nice trip, a very long lunch, and a slightly damp return, and it was a lovely way to end our holiday - tomorrow we finally head for home after thirty days away.

I think this will have been the longest trip we have done in terms of miles - I haven't checked yet but it seems likely, as this is the first time we have cruised almost constantly for the whole month, rather than stopping as we did at Cropredy last year and St Ives in 2007, for a week or so. I can say we traversed more or less 284 locks (including ones we didn't work ourselves, and counting ones we went through twice twice), and had the engine running for around 197 hours. This is actually fewer hours than last year, if we count the additional days, post holiday, getting back to Ramsey, but about the same for the month itself. This includes starting from Ramsey though, whereas this time we started from Cowroast. Most of the waterway covered was new to us, with only the final leg having been done before.