Farewell.

Still moored at lock 74 Hungerford.
501 locks, 610½ miles, 18 Tunnels, 28 swing bridges and 9 lift bridges since Nov 2006

After breakfast Brian and Mavis said farewell to Derek and Christina on narrowboat Kalimera and we walked with them up to the railway station where they caught a train back to their daughters home in Fleet. Au revoir guys, thanks for your company.
We then visited Somerfield’s super market for a few essentials before returning to the boat. As it has been raining on and off all day I managed to get a few maintenance jobs done.
The red boards are still up on the river Thames (see Snecklifter website) so we are in no hurry to move too far as we know what the river Kennet between Reading and Newbury was like when we came onto the K & A at the beginning of June, after all the rain at May Bank holiday weekend. We will stay here for another 24 hours and then take the next couple of days to work our way down to Newbury and review the situation from there.
Basically we need the weather to improve and stop raining for a least 4 days, some chance, so that the rivers will recede back to normal levels.
After watching the TV News tonight it seems that this weather pattern is the worst since records were started in 1914 with a 135% increase in rain. Farmers and market gardeners are suffering crop losses and failures and rowing boat and punt hire boat companies are twiddling their thumbs because of lack of business.