Kings Langley to Dudswell.

Thursday 21st May

Kings Langley to Dudswell, 7.8 miles and 22 locks.

This is just a short posting because we are both shattered after an eventful days cruising. The weather was absolutely glorious all day. It was a shame that the people we met up with on our travels were not the same. On saying that one gentleman we shared a few locks with was a real diamond. Dennis on NB Narrow Escape, proudly told me that he is in his 80th year and has only been boating for 15 months. He reckoned that life was to short to be sat around getting old, so he took to the canals to see this beautiful country of ours before his time is up. We shared lots of laughs as well as a few moans, as he asked me "What has happened to being polite?". My answer to that was "I was hoping you could tell me", which had us both laughing. We left Dennis and his collie Shadow above the Winkwell Locks, where he produced a bag of doughnuts from his galley and offered us both one, which was really sweet of him. he can share locks with us anytime, It has been ages since we had doughnuts. I wish there were more like him around. Hopefully we will see him again at the Wendover Arm Festival over this coming weekend. Our day has ended in between the Dudswell locks, leaving us just 2 locks to the summit. After what we have experienced today, it is making us both think of going back to 6am starts and finishing at between 9 and 10am, so that we miss the individuals who seem to think the canal is just for them or those people who want to use it as a race track. On at least three occasions today we could have got confrontational with people, but decided what was the point. On that note I am off to enjoy a nice dinner and a cup of coffee.