Let it rain!

The rain started, and the rain stopped. It started again. The sun came out, warily. And the rain stopped. So we set off at 11:30, daring the threatening blue-grey clouds to pour any more upon us. And they didn't dare. They continued to threaten, but we ignored them.

We descended Cowroast Lock, and approached Dudswell Lock just as the crew of a solo boat were closing the gates behind them. A couple of blasts of our horn stopped them, and Kantara slipped in alongside them. The two women on the boat were taking it to Brentford. One of them had only recently bought it, and they's just collected it from Cowroast Marina. It was their maiden voyage. Once at Brentford, they would join the Thames and carry on to Kingston-upon-Thames, where the owner would be living on the boat.

As we went down the locks with them, the sun came out.

Cowroast

Dudswell

The name "Cowroast", incidentally, has a lot to do with cows, but nothing at all to do with roasting them. The village used to have a number of large animal pens, and these were used by cattle drovers on their way to markets in and around London, to keep their cattle in overnight. Originally, the name was "Cow Rest". It's still a pretty odd name for a village though!

We parted company with the two ladies after lock 32, Gas 2 (and that's an odd name, too!), and as they continued on their journey, we pulled over and moored at a lovely spot in a small park in Berkhamsted. It started to rain heavily again shortly afterwards.

When that stopped, we walked to the nearby shops for food and some books to read. Grace spends more time reading than I do, and she gets through novels at quite a pace. At the marina, we have the benefit of a large lending library. On the cut, once our small bookshelves have been exhausted, we have to rely on charity shops.

Back at Kantara, no sooner had we finished unpacking our shopping, than it rained. We'd managed to stay dry all day long!