Black Horse Bridge to Gallow's Hill.

Hi Folks.

We woke up this morning to a pea souper and a heavy frost and yet inside the boat we were very cosy indeed. It has been many a year since we had fog like we saw this morning. I hope that this is not what we can expect for the rest of the Winter as it will spoil the wonderful views we get everyday ha ha ha.

Today was Tesco delivery day and at 9am I got a text from Tesco telling me that it would be arriving between 11am and 12pm, so at least I knew when to expect our supplies, which were much needed as the fridge was empty. Paddy and I took a stroll up the towpath towards the swingbridge to see if it was open again and hey presto, the workmen have left and the bridge is back in operation, although when I say the workmen have gone, they must be coming back because they have not finished the steps down from the bridge.

11.20am a Tesco van arrived with a new driver, who had no problem in finding us. All our shopping was soon unloaded from his van and loaded in through the galley window of the boat. I then set about stashing everything away. This delivery should last us for 2 weeks, but I may still buy a little more veg when we get to Market Harborough, as I love to have fresh fruit and veg onboard. Before we left our over night mooring, I supplied coal to a couple of boats and arranged to deliver coal to other customers over the next couple of days, so it is a busy old time for us.

11.40am we slipped off of our over night mooring behind NB Beaulieu, who very kindly did the swingbridge for us. The swingbridge has been closed since 25th June due to major work which needed to be done to the bridge to stop it seizing up. Boater's had been having real problems with it last year and so now we can all hope that the swingbridge works properly, otherwise the workmen will be called back out. We cannot be held up by a swingbridge which does not open and shut properly. it was clear as we set off, that the fog was still hanging around. We thanked NB Beaulieu's crew for doing the swingbridge for us. In a strange way it is nice to see it back working again, even if it is an absolute pain to operate when traffic is waiting to cross it. But then again, just with one key I hold the power to hold up the traffic. As we approached Clarke's Bridge it was clear the fog was lingering, even though the sun was doing its best to break through.At times we could hardly see our hands in front of our faces the fog was so thick and even as we came under Gallow's Bridge we lost NB Beaulieu ahead of us. At Gallow's Hill we pulled in just in front of NB Wilver owned by Virginia and Bill. It was lovely to see them again. Virginia offered us coffee and who were we to refuse. Coffee and Mince Pies came out and so there we were stood on the towpath watching the sun pierce through the fog drinking coffee and putting the world to right. They say the Waterway's is a small world and it was proven, when Virginia and I got chatting about a friend, which we soon realised we both know very well. Graham on NB Suit's Us if your reading this hello from us all. A shared ownership boat came into the moorings to buy some coal, so we also supplied Virginia and Bill at the same time with Six bags of Supertherm and then we went back to putting the world to right. Just as we were about to head off for some lunch, Phil one of the lengthsmen who does maintenance checks came walking past and of course he got no futher then chatting to us all for a good half an hour. It is always a good opportunity to chat to BW staff when they are passing. We get to talk to them about issues on the system. Bless him Phil was quite happy to listen to our chatter and enquiries. We then allowed him to go on his way and we headed back to the boat for a very late lunch. It has been a wonderful day, made all the nicer by meeting up with are valued customers.

We are staying here over night. Tomorrow we are heading into Market Harborough to deliver coal to our customers.