Whitewick.

    

Leaving our lovely mooring we were fortunate to see a hire boat exiting Awbridge Lock, so we went straight in. We were also lucky and did the same at Ebstree and Dimmingsdale Locks, perfick! There seem to be quite a few of these ‘fake’ trees on the hilltops now, just hope they are improving the signals for everyone.

   

Spotting a nice quiet place beyond Castle Croft Bridge we pulled in for the night. On my afternoon stroll about I snapped this beautiful house mmm. Next day we were off again up the two Whitewick Locks under blue skies. On pulling over for some diesel at Limekiln Chandlers we saw the tiny notice saying it had closed in November and was to be developed. Two old local chaps were waiting with the lock gates open for us at Compton Lock. We exchanged a bit of friendly banter with them and found that they enjoyed meeting boaters and helping them through the locks. They warned me that if  the upper ground paddle was opened too fast, water spurted up and you got a wet bum. They said they didn’t tell everyone, especially hasty hirers, all part of their amusement I suppose! Later we pulled over at Oxley Moor Stop where Mr Grumpy served us with diesel and told us he only dealt in cash. Anyway we rustled up enough for 50 litres between us at 86p.