Over the hill

Woke this morning feeling surprisingly un- stiff or sore after Heartbreak Hill. With hindsight it really wasn't that bad. Narrow locks are a lot easier both on the lock wheeler and the 'driver'. They're less heavy than the wide locks and the boat sits neatly in place rather than being banged around if it's in a wide lock on its own.
All the same you do get pushed firmly forwards onto the sill and top gate by the force of the in-filling water - and our front fender finally bit the dust after being scraped and ground up yet another corrugated sill and gate.
Some of the locks are twinned which speeds the flow of traffic - at one pair we were going up while another grey and black tug was going down in the parallel lock. And, of course, the traffic moving through the locks means that a good few are running in your favour which helps too.
Not that I'm saying it wasn't hard work of course!