The Cunning Man

Yesterday evening I went for a walk up to County Lock and then to the south of Reading. 

The canal through the centre of Reading is one way and controlled by traffic lights.  You might be able to see the red light in the above photo.  The water level was considerably lower than when we were last this way.

At 9am we pulled the mooring pins and slowly cruised up to the traffic light at the downstream end.  Jan pushed the button and the light immediately changed to green.   We had an uneventful cruise up through the Reading Oracle section of the river.

The last time we did this the river was just coming off flood levels and there was no time to take photos.

A boat had been up before us so Jan had to empty and set County Lock before I could steer Waiouru into it.

The route took us through the southern suburbs of inner Reading.  I can’t remember how many times I walked the towpath from Aldermaston to Reading when we were fitting out Waiouru so it’s all very familiar.  However there were two new things we noted.

This sign is new

And this boat owner appears to have been caught by some serious flooding with their end of garden mooring.

We moored above Fobney Lock so I could walk back to the local Halfords at Rose Kiln Lane and buy some engine oil.  They only had one container in stock but that will suffice to top up the engine oil. On my walk back I could hear the sound of a narrowboat behind me.  Feeling in a boaters mood we assisted the single hander through Fobney Lock.  He then went on ahead to Southcote Lock.  We joined him in the lock and Jan worked us up. 

We moored outside the Cunning Man pub at midday.  After lunch I checked the weed hatch because the boat has been making the noises associated with the prop being fouled.  It was clean!  We’ve been on rivers so long we’ve forgotten the sound Waiouru makes when the bottom of the canal is close to the top!

Cunning Man Mooring

I then removed the bird droppings from the cabin roof and side before doing some repairs to the handrail paint.

At 6pm we wandered over the the Cunning Man for dinner.  Jan chose the chicken and leak pie whilst I opted for the beef burger.  Both of us chose poorly!

The Cunning Man Pub

Jan has been reading Farsebook and identified that nb Sola Gratia is now ahead of us.  We’re not sure where and when Tim and Tracey managed to pass us.  But then you can’t trust those Boating Camping & Fishing (BCF) people!