Yes , not only has it been too hot to do much painting on Herbie in recent weeks, but now we can't go cruising either. CRT have announced that due to watwer shortages, the locks above and below Cropredy will be closed from July 21st until such time as water reserves are replenished and the warn that it mihhght take several weeks of persistent rain to accomplish that. This is climate change in action folks.
Stop Press: In a further message today CRT warn Cropredy marina that it may become necessary to seal off the marina from the canal by installing stop planks at the entrances. The marina in turn warns us that because of stop plank leakage and evaporation, water levels in the marina may fall even to the point of boats being unable to move to the service bay for toilet pumpouts etc. Blimey!
Every year a load of boats descend (or some probably Ascend I suppose) on Cropredy for the Fairport festival, so that will put the kybosh on their plans too. unless they get their skates on and arrive a fornight early and be prepared to be stuck there afterwards.
Well it is what it is I suppose. Next week we're taking the unusual step for us of taking a holiday on dry land. We're off to our beloved Shropshire hills. Even the stream outside the cottage where we're staying has reportedly dried up. Hey ho. We had planned to go cruising after that. Doh!
All this reminds me of our honeymoon in the summer of 1976. Being skint, we went camping on Dartmoor after months of dry weather. Some places were rationing water and people had to get it from standpipes in the street. Then on the Wednesday the rains came -big time, so we abandoned the rest of our honeymoon, packed up our soggy tent and drove home.
