Leaving early has definitely paid off when it comes to finding mooring so we left Hungerford at 8 am.  We seemed to have rather bad luck with the locks being against us most of the time.  Romy did get some help from one of the grass cutters at the second lock which was nice  but the grass cuttings over Oliver were appreciated a little less!  It was a short but enjoyable journey to Kintbury.  This rather grand looking house is the first thing we saw as we entered Kintbury.  We discovered that it is owned by the author Robert Harris.

We found another good spot on the visitor moorings but Peter decided to cycle down to “The Wilderness” to check if there was anything better near there.  There wasn’t so we stayed put.  He did however manage to find a good selection of wild flowers and presented Romy with a bouquet.

By evening all the moorings were full.

We had thought we would eat in tonight but remembering the stories about the pizzas at the Blue Ball we weakened.  What a good choice that turned out to be.  We armed ourselves with umbrellas as we braved our first rain and walked to the pub.  We had great pizzas and some interesting conversations with two live-aboards, who were moored near us, and the landlord.

We also spotted the similarity in the painted design on Oliver’s bow and the boat facing us at Kintbury.