A great day’s boating today, though it started off a little odd. We did the first lock on our own, then spotted a boat just in front of us. We caught them up at the second of the Fosse locks. We almost wish we hadn’t. It was a scruffy old boat with loads of junk on the roof and two guys in control, or rather not in control. We started to share the locks with them only to discover that it was their first day on a narrowboat. They were “moving it for a friend”. They weren’t sure what to do, no problem everyone has to learn. We then realised that they were on their nth can of beer (it was 9:00 in the morning), and when one of them disappeared for quite a while, the other one asked where he’d been. “I was rolling a joint” was the reply. So we were having to look after two clueless, doped up drunks who were betting on the horses on their phone! We stopped at lock 13 to walk into Long Itchington for supplies, and partly to avoid having to share any more locks with them. On our return their boat was moored up outside the pub.

We finished off the rest of the Stockton flight on our own. There were lots of boats about, more than we have seen for several days. We stopped at Calcutt boats for a pumpout, then on to the bottom of the Napton flght for the night. We thought that we might go to the pub tonight (two pubs in a week, unheard of for us), but they don’t serve food on Sunday evenings. So it’s vegetarian curry on board (thanks Tres!)

The Windmill at Napton on the Hill.