The first week flew by, we covered a further 70 miles, working our way through a further 75 locks, 3 swing bridges and a tunnel.

I collapsed in a heap at the end of each day, exhausted. I began to wonder if I would ever stop feeling tired. The events of the last few weeks, and the energy required to wrap everything up had obviously drained me more than I realised. Dugald somehow seemed to be on zoom, up with the lark as usual, and managed to drag me along with him.

We shared locks with some characters, and passed the usual eclectic mix of boats and their people.

In Leighton Buzzard we passed Wyvern Shipping, a hire boat company, and saw Marigold the first narrowboat we hired 21 years ago at Easter. We had horizontal sleet and snow over the weekend. Dugald and I got the bug, but the children were underwhelmed. Further canal holidays followed (without the children). During one of our ’10 year planning sessions’ we decided that we wanted a narrowboat to travel the canals in our retirement. So we evicted Dugald from his flat in Kennington and bought Ginger Bear for him to live on in London. We have often taken wrong turns, that one we seem to have got right.