Winkwell

More gentle bumbling - Friday the main priority was filling the water tank and emptying another one, so I moved up a couple of locks to the facilities point and did what needed doing. The moorings there were full, so I carried on a little and found myself a lovely offside mooring just above bridge 152, by a small public park entirely serving the local dogwalkers (and apparently children disposing of maths worksheets):



Today proved to be largely wet, but I did manage to explore Hemel Hempstead. The 'old town' is so well hidden I had to go back to the boat and use the internet to ascertain it even existed, and when I did find it - well, a bit of a backwater of estate agents and curry houses - sadly people seem to prefer the monstrosity that is the shopping centre. I did find some MR16 eyeball mounts in the 99p shops though, which may well come into use with LED lights - I'll see. The second exiting thing about the town is the the roundabout where the traffic goes around both ways at once, a less than welcome surprise to a boater on a custom shopper bike.

I was just thinking about moving when another boat came past - only the second I'd seen moving all day - so we got to share a few locks (and the electric swing bridge, thankfully) up to Winkwell - where we may well have a half or two in the pub later.

Understandably it's only 48hr moorings here (I do wish it would occur to Nicholsons that such information would be useful to boaters) so I'll probably carry on to Berkhamstead in the morning...