Wednesday 14th July

We were woken this morning by a text message from Richard’s friend, Dave Plumb. He and his wife Sue had gone down to Shockwave, the sailing boat that Richard and Dave share, yesterday and had planned to go sailing for 10 days. However the wind was so strong and the rain so heavy that they decided to take us up on the offer of a couple of days on Mary H. We motored through Grafton, Buscot and St. John’s locks (St. John’s is where the statue to Old Father Thames is) and up to Lechlade where they joined us early afternoon. I had worked out a complicated train and bus journey for them but they decided to drive – don’t blame them! We went for a walk into Lechlade which is quite a small town and very “Cotswoldy” then along the river back to the end of the navigable part of the Thames and where the old Thames and Severn Canal used to go off. There is a group who are trying to restore the canal but I think they could be fighting a losing battle! It would be a great canal if they could work magic as it would join the Thames up with the Sharpness and Gloucester canal and then onto the Severn and would make a great cruising ring. In the evening we went ashore to a lovely Italian restaurant where we sat outside and ate. The photo on the right is of the toll house on Halfpenny Bridge at Lechlade.