A heavy bang and thump against the boat woke me at 5am this morning. Jan investigated, retuning to tell me one of the farmer’s yearlings had fallen into the river between the bank and the boat. He was also caught on the bow rope. Eventually he was freed and then had to swim on the outside of the two boats ahead to find a way back onto the bank. Well that was the excitement for the day. Actually it wasn’t! The herd of yearlings have returned twice during the day to eat our mooring ropes. I guess the dried and aged dog wee makes them particularly tasty. Mandy (nb Urquhart Castle) had left a comment on yesterday’s blog post warning us about the rope chewing beasts but we didn’t read it until after breakfast.
I went for a walk around Lechlade after dinner yesterday.
Our mooring at Lechlade-on-Thames
Road access to Lechlade from the south is via Halfpenny Bridge which crosses the head of the navigable Thames.
It’s called Halfpenny Bridge because that was the original toll for pedestrians. The bridge marks the boundary between Wiltshire and Gloucestershire with the village being on the Gloucestershire side of the river. You can see the small toll house in the top left corner of the above photo.
Facing the bridge at the village end of the road is The Crown Inn which proudly proclaims it’s contains the first micro brewery in Lechlade. I doubt the population could support a second brewery! 
Another rather attractive pub is situated beside the bridge on the north bank.
For much of the afternoon we were buzzed by a rather large insect. With my eyesight I thought it had four jet engines and refuelling pods on the end of its wings. That led to a fruitless search into RAF refuelling aircraft and then NATO aircraft. It was until I had a close look at the photo Jan had taken that I was able to identify it.
Why was a USAF B52 bomber doing circuits over Gloucestershire? It’s the first time we’ve ever seen one!
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