Sun, sun and more sun

It's been yet another glorious sunny day again and I'm starting to run out of sunscreen.

Setting off early (10am which is early for us) we dropped down through 3 locks and moored at Berkhamsted to go to the canalside Waitrose and have lunch before continuing our cruise through another 10 locks. We shared 2 locks with a live-aboard boat whose skipper bemoaned the fact that it was a hard life, especially in the winter when he had to move his boat for water. He didn't like sharing locks and decided to moor up for a while so we carried on alone. The locks on this stretch are quite heavy and most have to be left empty as the lock walls leak which meant that almost every one needed filling before we could go through. If they carry on like this I'll have muscles on my muscles.......

We teamed up with another boat for a few locks and then were caught up by the live-aboard boat but even when the other boat pulled in for the day they didn't want to share the locks. By this time they were also zig zagging across the canal and always had cans in hand when they finally did make it to the lock. Such a shame and such a waste of water.

We're really enjoying the Grand Union Canal so far. It's much nicer than we expected and there are some fantastic water-side properties. I particularly liked this one

with it's own dry dock/boat house

and giant orangutan in the sun room

We called it a day after 13 locks and moored opposite a field of these pretty Belted Galloway cattle, highly prized for their marbled meat......pity my freezer is so tiny!