With today’s temperature forecast to be up to 36 Celsius, we’d already decided to stay put. Our mooring turned out to be excellent for yesterday evening’s solar eclipse. We rigged up a makeshift pinhole camera in the side door, which (once we’d made a slightly bigger hole in the piece of carboard) gave us the shape of the sun on the cabin side opposite. Macc wasn’t as interested as us.
Outside, the light went very odd. I think this was probably more remarkable for me than the bite out of the sun.
This morning even Macc seemed to realise we weren’t going anywhere, as he didn’t wake up quite so early. There are some nice walks in both directions here, where you can use the towpath in one direction and other footpaths to come back, making a circular route. We did one at breakfast time, and had a lovely view of our shady spot.
The boat stayed pretty cool all morning. Adrian did some of his charity work, while I did a few jobs in the engine room, tightening up a jubilee clip on a hose that appears to be weeping slightly, and having a general tidy up. Macc and I went for a somewhat warmed walk at lunchtime, and today he tried to carry a stick that was so long I didn’t even get it all into the photo.
The sun has now come round onto the side of the boat, so we’ll be warming up. We shut the blinds on that side to try to keep the temperature down, and open the side doors on the opposite side. Only six or seven boats have been by today, so it’s really very quiet on this end of the river.
0 miles, 0 locks, free mooring. (90 miles, 35 locks, £124.50)