Light at the end

The person who was snoring loudly when we got back from our unsatisfactory walk last night continued snoring most of the night. I finally fell asleep from exhaustion around 3.30 and I suspect that the four other people in our small space were, like me, only pretending to be asleep for much of the night. I've lost count of how many times I've been on this boat but last night was the worst ever and I was certain that I never again want to be trussed up in a single sleeping bag on a thin mattress, feeling my phone and glasses case through the skinny pillow under my head.

But today... what a fabulous day! The sun mostly shone, I loved walking ahead of the boat to prepare the locks (21 altogether on the Hatton flight - extra 1) and listening to birds and the leaves in the breeze. Above the top Hatton lock, the Shrewley tunnel, with its stalactites and acoustics (extra 2), was magical. When we emerged and I saw the separate smaller tunnel for horses (extra 3) I immediately wanted to walk back through it.

Yesterday I'd explained to the newcomers how locks work, and today they picked up a windlass for the first time, wound the paddles up to let the water through, wound them down again, put their weight to the balance beam and levered open their first lock gate so the boat could ease in.

We turned off the Grand Union Canal onto the narrower Stratford Canal and started up the next 19 Lapworth locks. Same principle but a different mechanism from the Grand Union locks. Lock by lock, our newcomers will get to understand how this clever system works.

By evening I was pretty sure I could do another fortnight of this!