Day 9 - Sunday 12 July

5.5 miles, 0 locks, 0 swingbridges
Total so far 32.5 miles. 42 locks. 12 swingbridges

Today's walk was mostly wet and wild! The sky leaked very lightly almost all the way - not enough to really make us soggy, but enough that Mum said she was glad of it to cool her down! It didn't bother me at all. The wild bit was the towpath! Almost all of it was really narrow and overgrown with beastie bushes on both sides of us, and the ground was very bumpy. Lots of practice of our 'Go Ahead' technique.

Mum called me a smarta**e at one point. What she really meant, of course, was that I am truly awesome! Each time I spotted a bin along the way, I steered Mum towards it and stopped to check whether or not she needed to feed it. You see, she so often asks me to 'find a bin' that I thought I would just do it anyway! Only once today though did she actually feed a bin. That was shortly after she called me 'Stinky'!

The other example of my awesomeness today was when we came to a bridge across the canal. I tried to steer Mum up the towpath and onto the bridge, but she insisted on 'Under the bridge'. I gave in and did as she asked. We went under the bridge only to find that the towpath ended there! I gave Mum my best 'told you so' sideways look and led her back to where I was trying to take her in the first place: Up at the bridge! We got to the top of the slope and I waited while she fumbled around finding the latch, then we went through the gate, over the bridge and down the to where the towpath continued on the other side of the canal. This was the bit that really impressed Mum: Beside the bridge there was a fence and one of those big wide gates that farmers use to get their giant sit-n-ride toys through. This was chained up. Mum was standing looking to try to work out how to get through (it takes her a long time to scan round and survey a scene). Before she had finished scanning round, I had led her off to the left where there was a little gate for people to get through. This wasn't chained, but just had a latch like the one on the other side.

Mum got her little talkybox thing and asked Dad if he had brought me walkies here before. He said 'No - never been here before at all'. Mum was a bit amazed at how I did that! She should know by now that I am simply awesome!

Today's walk finished at a pub that we visited on our way to the start fo the Megawalk. After mooring up, and after Mum had done her wierd thing in the warm-rain box (I don't get it! We had been out in rain all morning!) We went into the pub garden, where a nice man greeted us. Another man was cooking sausages on a big hot sizzly thing. That smelt fantastic! Of course, I didn't get any! Well....not offcially anyway! I think I left the grass cleaner than I found it!

We spent the afternoon there, Mum, Dad and two nice Guide Dogs people had funny water to drink and ate some of those sausages, I jsut snoozed under the table. There were some men stroking the whiskers of noise-boxes and doing that human howling stuff into lollipops on sticks and a few people made a fuss of me. Some people put some of those shiny disks and/or floppy rectangles into the dog-with-a-hole-in-its-head box. Apparently that was the important bit!

Mum and Dad seemed a little disappointed that there weren't many people there. I'm sure I heard Mum say that she had hoped that a few Guide Dog puppies would come but none did. Perhaps the leaky sky had something to do with this. I did get to say hello to a pair of twiggy dogs. Their human said that they are labrador x whippet sisters. One of them was very bouncy. I would have loved to play but I was wearing my bra so I wasn't allowed! Huff!

When we left the pub garden, I did get to have a good play with a group of doggy pals from a boat near ours. There was a little scruffy terrier, a couple of mixtures about my size, and a white fluffy Alaskan Husky. We had a great game of chase and I went aboard their boat too. Somebody had been very careless and forgotten to eat their doggy-dinner. There was a big bowlful of nuggets that I dutifully cleared up for them. I don't think Mum was too impressed with my devotion to my hoovering duty! I only got a tiny bit of dinner tonight! Harrumph!

Mum and me walking under a bridge on the towpath. I have to make sure I keep Mum safe here between going splash one side and bumping her head on the low bridge on the other.

Mum and me sitting down for a welcome few minutes beside a swingbridges. We have opened the bridge and are waiting for Dad to bring the host through.

A close up shot of us beside the swingbridges. Mum is making a fuss of me.
I am watching out for Dad.