Hungerford

Emma duly arrived on Monday evening to take us to Canterbury. Unfortunately we awoke to torrential rain on Tuesday morning and it was not a pleasant job moving not only ourselves and overnight gear from boat to car, but also moving two dogs and all their associated paraphernalia! The start of the journey was not good, the traffic reports kept telling us of very slow moving traffic on the M4 just where we were going. We contemplated a different route but we glad we decided to stick with it when we heard the M3 was even worse. After a couple of hours the rain did begin to lessen and we eventually arrived at our destination in dry weather with just a hint of sun. We were booked into the Woolpack Inn in Chilham village which proved to be very convenient for the 3 dogs in the party. Parga with Emma, Ellie with us and Duke with nephew Marc. We had 3 adjacent rooms all with french windows opening out into a fully enclosed garden area. We just left all three doors open and they wandered into whichever room they fancied.....although Geoff was not too impressed when Duke wandered in and nuzzled his ear in the middle of the night!!
Brother John's memorial service in Barham Church and the scattering of his ashes in the same place as his Fathers at Barham Cemetry went well and a gathering of family and close friends all had dinner and stayed at the Woolpack Inn for the night.
On Wednesday as arranged Emma drove us back to Kintbury. However about 2/3 of the way back she began to feel unwell and by the time we arrived at Petroc she had to be put to bed with a high temperature and aching all over. She called in to say she would not be in to work on Thursday as she wasn't capable of driving back to Leamington.
Since we wanted to press on it was decided that she would travel with us for the next few days as far as Great Bedwyn and then catch the train back to her car at Kintbury.
When we had arrived back the previous evening we found that our clean boat was no longer. It had apparently rained solidly all day at Kintbury and in addition someone had had a huge bonfire so we were covered in leaves and ash!
Before leaving we watered and cleaned the boat again. Since this was to be the first time we had travelled with Parga, as opposed to just visiting, I decided to walk as far as Hungerford to wear him out. He has a lot to learn about being a boat dog!!! He was unable to cope with the boat going without him and twice jumped into the canal to swim after it. Eventually he began to get the message but not before he had tried so hard to get free at one of the locks that he broke his collar.....admittedly it was on it's last legs.
We moored in the centre of Hungerford in a very pleasant spot and after a pint in the pub and lunch, Emma and I went to buy him a new collar.
A phone call to the Curry's Customer Service elicited the information that the vouchers for me to buy my replacement computer had been dispatched on Monday so I decided that I would return with Emma in the hope that they had arrived and I could do something about getting myself set up again.
An early start was planned for the journey to Great Bedwyn but Geoff had a disaster at supper....he cracked his dentures!!!! A search of the internet revealed that there was a Denture Repairer in Newbury so the plot now is to depart from here by train. Emma and I will collect her car and go to Leamington and Geoff will carry on to Newbury and try and find this repairer.
Geoff is beginning to fret that we are going slower and slower and now we are even going backwards.........however we have heard that the water levels on the Thames are quite high so we are in no rush to get back there.