Pat is anxious to get home as soon as possible, so we must press on. Today we moved on down to Newbury (by lunchtime) for shopping, diesel and gas, then on to Woolhampton. There was no sign of locked gates on the way down, but why should there be a water shortage on this section to Copse Lock? A clue might be found in the state of the weir above Drewat's Lock. It is choked up with weed, but a lot of water seems to be leaking through the wooden planking at the bottom of the structure. Just a thought! We were joined by a reading hire boat at Copse Lock and enjoyed the newbies humour as far as Newbury. After shopping and boat needs we carried on, mixing up with a number of different boats on the way to Woolhampton. Unfortunately we were too late to get on the 48 hour moorings and had to be content with tying up in the prolific vegetation further up. These we will call the beggars moorings. After tying up, the water level dropped a few inches which led to quite a list. Investigations at the lock revealed no problems and the bywash was overtopping gently, so no need to be worried.
Looking at the state of some of the bottom lock gates, bursting with prolific vegetation, it struck me that if we can persuade some boaters early in the season to chuck a few tomato seeds onto the gates, later in the year this could prove a very useful resource of ripe tomatoes.
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