Newbury

Set off earlyish when it was chilly and still a little misty.  Down through Hungerford Lock and watered.  The watering point is very convenient for Tesco's so did a short trip there.
The day improved steadily and even almost too hot for me........

Such a pretty approach to Kintbury

We dropped off the rubbish in Kintbury as they have removed this facility in Hungerford.  We flirted with the idea of stopping as there was plenty of space but we felt we had come such a short distance and we were progressing well.
The horse drawn boat was waiting at the bottom of the lock with it's horse patiently waiting whilst they took on passengers

After a few locks we realised someone was ahead of us as we were having to fill all the locks and when we caught up with them we realised it was our friends with the two cats on leads together with the boat they are travelling with.  We also discovered why they were going so slowly...they were following a Bruce Trust widebeam that was crawling along.  What should have been a nicely timed lunch time arrival at Newbury was more like a 2pm arrival, very late lunch.  However it was a lovely day, the countryside looked good and what the heck....whose in a hurry.
There was just space at the top of the lock so we decided to stay there rather than take a chance on a space being available down in the centre where we had moored on the way down.
The forecast for tomorrow is not good so will stay here.  We have booked Petroc in for an engine service at Newbury Boat Services first thing Wednesday morning.
Then we have some decisions to make.  Boe departs from Heathrow for her new teaching post in Moscow on Sunday morning and I want to go and see her off so the ideal place is Reading which we can make easily by then, however we have just discovered it is Reading Festival this weekend so that has cast some doubt on the advisability of mooring in Reading.......still thinking about it......
8.67miles, 11 locks, 6hrs 27min