We'm stoppin'

Day 23, Elkington lock to Marston Doles

Under six hours and just five locks - the Princess Lucy crew could have joined us today. Renfrew were off at 6.20 and we followed a couple of hours later. We got up Claydon very smoothly, and wound our way around the summit. We got word from Pete that they'd arrived at Marston Doles at 11.30 and waited two hours to go down. By the time we arrived, the queue to go down was fourteen boats long so we made an instant decision to stay put, and go down in the morning. I have even got Jim to agree to an early start. Not forgetting of course that we are not entirely certain that we're not going to get stuck in one of them. This means no stopping for steak at the Nelson but holding out for a mixed grill at the Greyhound on Wednesday. Today was another lovely sunny day. As the weather in June and July was so disappointing, I joked that we were saving it up for our holiday and this has turned out to be true; the weather has been fantastic very nearly throughout the three plus weeks we have been out and is promised to continue until we get back to Alvecote. Would it be too much to ask that it be nice for the bank holiday weekend too when we'll be there for their historic boat gathering.