Sharing locks?

We came out of the Wendover Arm turned sharp left and entered the open top lock and waited but no boat came. A boat was on the way up so we went down on our own. After dealing with six locks we stopped for lunch. There we saw that Marsworth reservoir was also very low. After another lock we found ourselves following a boat called The Long Wait.
When we reached the next set of two locks with a short pound between we hovered for a while waiting for a boat that never came and finally stopped for some time. A wide beam trip boat in front of us had gone down both locks turned round and proceeded back up after letting a single boat up. When that had cleared the lock we both went in. As the trip boat came up the lower lock we went down. The short pound was a bit low so we had to be careful not to run aground passing the wide boat. We stopped in the afternoon and watched several wide beam trip boats going past in both directions.
What, we wondered would happen next.

Well next day we got no less than three boats in one lock! Us and two short day boats hired from the local boat yard. They were all on a learning curve in the lock. One family had life jackets while the other with very young children had none. They looked the part though with their 'skipper' hats on. We all managed to get through six locks without incident in the sunshine.

A Lion on the hill near Horton