Last night we moored at Winkwell, just outside the Three Horseshoes, an Inn that dates back to 1535 and is apparently (or should that be apparitionally) haunted? We carried out some research and gave it the thumbs up. Sunday morning dawned and we were off again, making the short hop to the next lock where I had what the stars would call a ‘wardrobe malfunction’. Bending down to pick up the centre rope, my jeans split open behind. Thankfully I still adhere to the rule of my mother who always insisted on me wearing clean underpants every day, ‘in case I had an accident’. In any case there was no one around so after filling the lock I still had time to put on another pair of jeans. It only took us two hours to get to Berkhamsted where we were able to moor just above Ravens Lane lock. We took a walk into town where we enjoyed lunch at Carluccio’s and after wandering into most of the shops along the main street, we stopped for coffee at Brasserie Blanc. A short stop at the local Waitrose store preceded a walk along the towpath back to our mooring.

After a short rest, we walked down to the Rising Sun pub where we joined the throng of people gathered around the pub and the lock there. There was a group of cyclists sitting on the lock gate and we were looking forward to a boat arriving and providing us with some entertainment. It took ages but eventually a pair arrived, unfortunately they didn’t provide us with the expected laughs.

When we passed through Berkhamsted a few days earlier we admired a place called the Warehouse which we took to be some sort of shop. Our mooring place was almost opposite said place so before we walked to the Rising Sun we decided to visit the Warehouse. Embarrassingly, it turned out to be a private house, the home of Lindy, who is a local councillor. We apologised and left the grounds but later on Sue continued the conversation with her from the other side of the canal when we had returned to Phoenix III. She was a good sport and amongst other things we discovered that she represents a group called CARP.

There wasn’t much in the way of boating traffic so we settled in for the evening and just relaxed.