More locks and yet another unnel

Off at 8 in company with Epiphany.  Geoff and John driving, Barney and I walking and Fi gently getting up.....or maybe she was cooking breakfast........
Our walk to Watford lock was slightly longer than I had bargained for and after a night of not sleeping well manageded to shatter me for a while!!!
However we were pleased to see when we reached the bottom of the 7 locks that no one was in front of us.........so we thought we were in for a quick passage.........how wrong can one be.   John walked up to check with the lock keeper( cannot proceed here without his say-so). ...and we told we could go through the first lock.    Fi went ahead on Epiphany and I gaily followed immediately under the impression that we were still in wide locks..........first mistake of the day......I did think the entrance looked a little narrow......my memory had failed yet again as we were back to single locks.
I eventually followed up and there we both waited below the second lock .......and waited and waited......it is one way traffic because of the staircase of 4 in the middle and the lock keeper had decided to let down 7 boats before we were allowed to proceed........
However we were not in a rush, the weather was dry and not too hot, we all helped the 7 boats as they passed through the locks on either side of us, there was time to make coffee and toast and the surrounding countryside was lovely.........hard to believe that just a stones throw over the hedge was the busy M1 and the Watford Gap motorway services......in fact that was the only sound disturbing the morning and even that was OK as we were not in a car but gently travelling a canal at a much slower   pace of life.......

Having trouble with blogger uploading so this page will be updated when it deigns to let me edit and also upload pictures