Castle Gardens

A day off was planned as we calculated that we had advanced on our timetable enough to grant ourselves this luxury. Compared with the rest of the week, today was a lie-in! We did intend to do some food shopping and possibly wander around  the city centre shops. However, a chap from another boat on the mooring (overstaying on the grounds that he is still trying to fix his boat's batteries) knocked on our roof. We had just started the engine so that we could do a load in the washing machine. However, he asked if we leaving and could we give him a lift to the opposite side - he thought that the exit from Friars Mill was locked for the weekend and he needed to get away to a boat moving job, taking a boat from Kilby Bridge to Leighton Buzzard in three days.

We had also planned to attempt to move up to Castle Gardens as it is more convenient for walking to the cathedral tomorrow. So we agreed to set off in a short while (Christine was still in the bathroom!) He assured us that his mate on a boat already at Castle Gardens had said that there was room for us. If this failed we could always moor on the opposite side - not as secure but we have not had any problems there in the past.

However, when we were within sight of the pontoon it was clear that a small cruiser was occupying at least two spaces, but our passenger said that it was OK, he would move it up as the owner would not mind. Once that was done we were able to come alongside. In reality there was room for all of us!

At this point we realised why the chap had not been able to exit from Friars Mill - he does not have a Watermate Key, the one used for all the CaRT public facilities! Could we please let him out? We also discovered that all the other boats here were cheerfully overstaying the signposted 2 day limit!

Once the washing machine cycle was complete we locked up and went across the footbridge to a Tesco Superstore. We did not have a long list as we plan to call at Lidl tomorrow (as we did back in May) so that any fresh good we get remain fresh as long as possible. There are no obvious places for a top up in the next week unless we make a detour. We had heard that many supermarkets were having problems keeping chilled and frozen goods cool enough and this proved no exception we any shelves empty of covered over. We soon realised that those in the know just dive behind the screens to reach out for what they wanted! We quickly joined the 'in the knows'.

The afternoon was quite hot but a fresh breeze meant that we did not melt as readily as yesterday! Nevertheless, we opted out of walking into the city centre!