After the trauma of the attack on Finlay, we moved off the next day towards Hungerford.

At the 1^st lock we came across Hireboaters in a Widebeam . One bloke at the helm, and another at the lock.  Maralyn and I thought that as they may be on their own, we would give a hand, as you do. As I turned from helping with a paddle,I noticed 2 heads in the saloon of the boat, and there were two large ladies sitting yacking away, drinking coffee.

Erm, Erm. !!!  Come on M, they have a crew, let them get on with it.

The bloke took the hint, and as the rain started, he went inside and got one of the women to come and help. A large lady appeared, bearing a strong resemblance to Tommy Cooper, and proceeded to light up her fag, and then went and had a look at the paddle mechanism. She then asked where the next lock was, and we told her that it was just around the corner, and that,infact, all 7 locks were walkable.

Away they went.

At the next lock, they were hovering about in the middle of the canal, and not on the lock mooring. No idea what they were doing, but our chum Jim of the jippy tummy, nipped onto the mooring so that he could make a dash for the loo. , the hirer at the lock shouted at him to “F**k Off. This is our lock”

Jim said that he had no intention of pinching locks, but if they didn’t want to use the lock mooring point, he did. !!!!

As M and I walked passed,the 2^nd large lady, resembling Jabba the Hut, shouted that “ They are just plain ignorant, ignorant pigs”.

“Errr, excuse me madam, who are you talking about ?”

“Him, getting in front of us”

“ if you want the lock, you should be on the lock mooring point.  However, we are NOT pinching your lock”.

“ but we were waiting for the boat in front to leave the lock” says Weedy husband

“Why ?  he’s been gone about 2 mins. Just get onto the lock mooring point, if you want it.”

“ Oh, shut up, just shut up  and anyway we know you don’t like us hirers” Jabba says

“ what??? Don’t be so childish, we were once hirers, you great pair of numpties “

When Jim. Finally, made an appearance, and told him off for getting us into trouble. !!!!!

Is he bothered ??????

 Its very busy her at Hungerford.