We made speedier progress today, thanks in part to meeting more boats in either direction which helps with the locks. The locks are definitely a little easier now too, the super-size variety seem to be behind us.

We still had one more of the “turf” locks to go through; these are interesting in that the top sides are just turf banks, weeds and all – so rather leaky but there’s enough water from the Kennet that water supply is rarely an issue. You have to leave the lock empty so the plants can survive.

There are relatively few moored boats alongside except at the official mooring sites – largely perhaps because good mooring spots can be hard to find, and the official moorings are often full by the time we’re looking to stop. So not having to slow for moored boats, and having nice long straights like below, all helped whiz us along today.

We still kept up with using both fore and aft lines though; Sarah multi-tasking both operating the paddles and holding the bow line in.

We had a brief stopover in Kintbury for water, and liked this sign enough to take a picture!

We’d hoped to stop there for the day – there’s a lovely sounding pub that does wood-fired pizzas, but sadly there was no room to moor, so we moved on and ended up in the countryside in a nice quiet spot – provided the trains don’t start too early!