Not far but lengthy

We had decided yesterday that we would go up the Atherstone flight of locks today regardless of the weather, which was forecast to be fine-ish. There are eleven of them over a 1.5 mile distance.

So we were underway early (pushed off before 7am which is just ridiculous and won't be happening again this season, I can tell you!), as we had hoped to get to Hawkesbury Junction today. But it damn well rained again! That makes it slow going, even if David has the bike out. It's less safe being a locky in wet weather: wet metal, wet wood, wet concrete block lock-sides. So no stepping across from one closed gate to the other open gate today. That then requires walking around three sides of the lock twice - once to open the offside gate and once to close it.

It rained all the way up the locks and in between them, lightly at first and then it came down a little harder. Not pelting down, not a Wellington southerly, but enough to make us cold and damp. My possum and Merino gloves were sodden** but still kept my fingers warm-ish. It's that hollow possum fur fibre, you know, combined with whatever qualities merino wool has that pulls water away from the skin. **I wrung them out when we got inside and managed to get about a quarter of a cup of grubby water from each one. So they then got rinsed under the tap and wrung out again and put over the radiator to dry ...

Note to self: Remember the old adage - rain before 7, dry by 11. And yes it was, not long after we filled with water and moored up at the top of the flight. But not to worry. We have walked to the Coop, walked back, had a cup of hot chocolate, David has put away the groceries, well most of them as there's a range of things waiting for the onboard logistics service to come and move them. Suddenly said service is off duty. I think a nana nap is about to commence ...