Friday 15th October

We ran out of water this morning! I was in the shower and had just finished rinsing my hair which was a bit of luck! It’s the first time we had run out and were rather surprised. On a tank we had had six showers and done a load of washing plus all the washing up etc for 2½ days. We left our mooring and headed down to Dapdune Wharf to fill up. When we went through Millmead Lock I was joined in the lock by four ducks – which is unusual but the ducks were unusual too. Can you see the strange tuft on the nearest duckt!! We filled up at Dapdune – it took 40 minutes. Dapdune Wharf became the barge building site of the River Wey Navigations. Today, parts of the Wharf have been restored with a stable, smithy, barge-building shed and an original Wey barge, 'Reliance'. The Wey, unlike many other less efficient waterways, survived the railway era and under private ownership continued to trade until well after the Second World War. The last owners, Stevens & Sons, donated the Wey to the National Trust in 1964 and today it is one of the few financially self-supporting waterways, having no call on the Trust's general finances or on public funds.Originally the Wey Navigations were used for transporting barge loads of heavy goods via the Thames to London. Timber, coal, corn, flour, wood and gunpowder were regularly moved up and down the waterway. We noticed as the day wore on that there were more boats around – maybe because it’s Friday? We couldn’t think of any other reason! We stopped for the night opposite Pyrford Golf Club – a nice Millie spot :-)