Bath Time

And boy do we need it, the dust being kicked up from the Tour de France that is the towpath here in Bath has coated everything in a not so thin layer of fine chalk dust.

We moved on from Bradford just a few miles and spent a couple of nights at Dundas Aqueduct and I have to say it was probably our favourite mooring of the canal so far. As usual most of the designated 48 hour moorings around the basin were occupied by long term liveaboards - Sarah made the mistake of asking one if he could move up a few feet so we could squeeze in to be told no he couldn’t cos he was off to work. It actually did us a favour as we moored just outside the basin and it was much more peaceful and we didn’t have the concern of all the hire boats trying to do a 90 degree turn onto the aqueduct in front of us.

Our second day there was my birthday (Oh thank you) 70th at that and as 2 of the boats that we had been seeing a lot of were also moored up we ended having a great social evening with Jane and Robert from NB Pema and Lynn and Ian from NB Verano, a very enjoyable day.

From there we came on to Bath and are moored very near Sidney Gardens one of of the many delightful open spaces that abound in Bath. We’ve done the tourist bit with a visit to the Royal Crescent including a tour of Number 1 as well as a stroll around the Abbey etc. 

Tomorrow sees us heading towards Bristol so down the locks here with Bath deep lock, all 19 feet of it, to look forward to and then onto the River Avon.

View from Dundas Aquaduct

Plenty of Wild Garlic for seasoning!

The entrance to the Somersetshire Coal Canal now only open for a few hundred yards for mooring

Needs no caption I think

Cleveland House over the K & A - the original had office of the K & A Canal Co

ditto

Trap door in the roof of the tunnel under Cleveland House so that documents could be handed up from the barges to the clerks inside

Just wondered how old the sign was

Manic bank holiday

Thank goodness we had a good mooring at Bradford upon Avon for the weekend. We moored up here on Friday afternoon just before the world and his wife decended upon us. Having had the canal virtually to ourselves for the last three weeks we have had more boat movements past us in the last two days than the previous 21 combined. Virtually all hire boats and one that managed to hit us whilst we were moored up.

We had a enjoyable journey up here stopping over night at Seend Cleeve where we celebrated Sarah’s birthday at the Barge Inn and then the following morning we joined NB Warneford for the trip to Bradford which was good as it was manned by 6 men from RAF Upavon so the locks were fairly easy on us. The boat is actually owned by the base/RAF and is available for men from the station to use. Its named after a famous WW1 pilot from the Royal Naval Air service who received the VC. From Wikipedia:-

“On 7 June 1915 at Ghent, Belgium, Warneford, flying a Morane-Saulnier Type L, attacked the German airship LZ 37. He chased the airship from the coast near Ostend and, despite its defensive machine-gun fire, succeeded in dropping his bombs on it, the last of which set the airship on fire. LZ37 subsequently crashed in Sint-Amandsberg^[6](51°3′43.2″N 3°44′54.7″E).^[7] The explosion overturned Warneford's aircraft and stopped its engine. Having no alternative, Warneford had to land behind enemy lines, but after 35 minutes spent on repairs, he managed to restart the engine and returned to base.”

Amazing the things these guys did.

We have had a restful few days here (apart from the boat traffic) and wandered around the town which is very attractive but totally blighted by the traffic (cars) through its centre. But get away from that and it is very quiet and historic including a Saxon church.

To add greatly to our enjoyment we met up again with NB Perma and spent a very enjoyable evening with Jane and Robert (and Bella their Lab)

Tomorrow we start to wend our way to Bath but will take a day or two to get there to try to avoid the bank holiday exodus.

One of many superb buildings in Bradford upon Avon

Tithe Barn at Bradford reckond to be the finest example in the country

Inside the Tithe Barn

Inside the Saxon church

Ditto

Rest and be Thankful

Well, we had the rest and now we’re thankful that we are down the main part of the Caen Flight.

The 2 day break certainly came at the right time. We spent most of it coughing and sneezing and taking medicine (REAL medicine not Scotch I might add) to try to shake it off.

Monday Sarah felt really bad so I went into Devizes to get aforementioned medicine and got caught in the most horrendous downpour. Luckily I was in full waterproofs and it certainly proved that they were - waterproof that is.

By the afternoon the sun had come out and Sarah felt in need of some fresh air so we took the dogs for a walk up Quakers Walk towards Roundway  and were rewarded with some stunning views.

Tuesday was reprovisioning day and we decided that an early start on the locks the following day was in order. Neither of us was still 100% but we had used up our 72 hours on the mooring and after my bleating on about over stayers we didn’t feel we should stay.

So this morning after filling with water we left the wharf at 8.05am to start the decent of the 29 locks. As Sarah was still the rougher of the two of us and the lock gates were of such a design (see pic below) that she would have had trouble crossing the top gates with her bad hip she steered and I did the locking. Of course we were on our own no other boat showing any sign of moving and as Sarah was not feeling confident I was opening both gates top and bottom. I checked the time after the first couple of locks and if we kept up the same rate of progress it looked as though we would arrive at the bottom of the flight around 10pm. Not a pleasing thought. Also I have to say that some of the winding gear on the bottom  gates is so highly geared it was taking 60 turns to raise the paddle ( I know, I counted them after about the third lock). At that time on our own and with both gates to do some metal arithmetic told me I was likely to be doing some 7,000 turns on the bottom gates alone by the time I reached the bottom. Thankfully when we reached the main middle section of the flight we were picked up by two volunteer lock keepers and made excellent progress from then on and ended up mooring at the bottom of the main flight at around 12.30.

Tomorrow we progress towards Bradford on Avon which we will hopefully get to on Friday and there may be some long term moorings there so a time out will be called for again I think.

View across to Devizes

Impending storm

Top lock gate construction is wierd, no board to walk on just the gate and to get on it you have to step around where the  beam joins

Not the first boater to take this view

Modern technology - solar power being used to pump the water back to the top of the flight

Damn, I forgot the Union Jack

Well, we made it to the summit. After a climb of some 10 days from base camp at Reading we reached the top of this difficult climb at Crofton Top lock.  A rarified atmosphere here at an altitude of 450ft but we made it without oxygen. Not much of a summit really only 3 miles before we started to descend. So 53 locks to get us to the top and 54 to get us down again but we had some long lock free pounds to look forward to. We had planned to moor that night on the visitor moorings at Wooton Rivers but when we got there there was no space, again it all appeared to be taken by boats that had obviously no intention of moving in 24 days or even months rather than the specified 24 hours, so we continued on to Pewsey where the visitor moorings were for 48 hours. We did manage to get in - just - but considering these were designated moorings the state of them was dreadful with collapsing banks and shallow water. We managed to get the bow in but it meant that we had to use the gang plank to get on and off. Well, you can imagine what the reaction of our intrepid crew members T n T was to that stage of affairs. To add to their trepidation when Teasle got back on board the first time she walked right to the end of the plank and unfortunately due to how it was positioned it meant that it went past the point of balance and deposited her on the cratch floor. Cant blame her for being a bit cautious after that I suppose.

Although we could have stayed 2 days and it would have been interesting to explore the town we decided to press on and moored last night at Honey Street. The good news, easy firm mooring, room to get in, right outside a pub. The bad news, it was Saturday night and that was live music night and the music (I use the word loosely) went on until midnight. The fact that we had both developed coughs as well didn’t help but other than that it was a very peaceful mooring and the food we had at lunch was good quality pub grub. 

So we moved on again this morning, my cough slightly improved but Sarah feeling like death. The initial plan had been to move on about 4 lock free miles with just 2 swing bridges and moor up on the visitor moorings at Bishops Cannings. The good news, we got to both swing bridges at exactly the right time, a boat coming the other way having opened them for us and in one instance closing it as well, the bad news - guess what - the visitor moorings were again full with non movers. Time for a rant. This canal seems to have more than its share of inconsiderate residential boaters who care nothing for the rest of us. They obviously don’t move anywhere and it would be bad enough if they were out on rough moorings but to hog the small number of visitor moorings is just so inconsiderate. To add insult to injury many of them are not even licenced. In our 3 hour cruise today I counted ELEVEN boats that were either not displaying a licence or had one that was out of date. Come on CaRT do something about it. Rant over.

So we soldiered on to Devizes hoping that there would be space there, if not it meant that we would be doing the Caen flight of 29 locks which with our level of health was not a comforting thought. Thankfully there was space, the moorings are sound and we can spend 72 hours here which we intend to do to try to recover from the ague which plagues us and then attack the flight.

One of the famous white horses

Alton Barnes Saxon church - check out the paving across the field to help you to heaven. It was probably a 1/4 mile  long from the village

T n T's bed looking more like a howdah. Just after taking this pic a gust of wind ripped the umbrella out of the clips but somehow I managed to catch it as it disappeared over my head. Need to rethink the design!

A novel form of narrowboat - a converted lifeboat

Wet, wet, wet

Plenty of time to do the blog today. The rain is pounding on the boat and we are tied up at Gt Bedwyn thankful that we travelled down yesterday in the glorious sunshine.

A wander round the Kintbury, a walk with the dogs and sitting out on the towpath enjoying the weather seemed to occupy the day we spent there.

The next day was only 3 miles and 3 locks to Hungerford and we managed to team up with another boat to come through them so a very easy pleasant day.

Mooring is very handy for the town centre in Hungerford and faces a picturesque line of cottages. A foray into the town for provisions and Sarah's quest for good independent off licences (!!) was rewarded with one in the high street. In fact it was only their second day of opening and we were the second customer of the day so I suppose they were keen to impress but even though they didn’t have any Muscadet in stock they pointed Sarah's palate to a wine which she has described as very acceptable!

We were on 48 hour moorings but the weather forecast was good for the next day but atrocious for the following so we decided to crack on and hope that the moorings at Gt Bedwyn were 48 hours so we could hole up for the day. 

It was a beautiful day to be on the cut even if we did have 10 locks and 2 swing bridges to negotiate in four and a half miles. The second of the swing bridges was actually across the lock so had to be swung out of the way before the boat could enter and it was a pig. It was so constructed that the ground immediately either side of the bridge sloped away, so with both of us being vertically challenged to get any leverage on it was difficult to say the least. No other boats around of course and no walkers (it only carried a footpath) although there had been a good half dozen in evidence on our approach! So that lock took us about 40 minutes to negotiate. We thought our luck had changed when after another couple of locks a hire boat pulled out in front of us laden with people. Ideal lock buddies! Not to be - we got into the first lock with them to be told that they had only come though it to wind and start their return journey so we were on own again. We eventually made it to Gt Bedwyn in four and half hours - a whole 1 mile per hour.

We were however relieved to see that there was one space remaining on the visitor moorings and they were 48 hours. So it was parasol up and a relaxing afternoon soaking up the sun whilst we could.

Moorings on this canal are very few and far between and its galling to find that on this mooring for visitors which can only take 5 boats there are at least two which obviously haven’t moved in ages. One of them is a wide beam with so much stored on the rear deck it would probably take 2 days just to clear it so they could move. We had a CRT inspector round this morning taking numbers but it doesn’t seem to have much if any effect on these types.

For once the forecast seems to have been accurate and its still teeming but hopefully tomorrow will be better.

View from our mooring at Hungerford

Wish I could keep my brass this shiny

Hungerford Church

Relaxing at Gt Bedwyn

Interesting Post office at Gt Bedwyn - they appears to be gravestones - see below

Interesting epitaph 

A bit behind the times down here! Never heard of Dr Beeching

Actually a Reading to Bristol special

Progress at a Hodmadods pace? - no nothing that fast

After the openness and speed (comparatively) of the Thames our progress on the K & A is very slow and extremely hard work. On the first day we covered about 5 miles in as many hours and things have not changed much since.

This is not a canal for the fainthearted or the old and infirm so we really shouldn't be here! The locks are doubles so the gates are big and heavy, most of the locks up to Newbury only have gate paddles so the water rushes in at a tremendous pace if one is not careful so they have to be filled slowly, and I should think there are more swing bridges on this canal than on the rest of the system put together, all of them closed, some electrified and some manual so it all makes very, very slow work.

On the upside we have met some great boaters and are (in spit of the above) really enjoying ourselves. Our first night after leaving Reading was spent at Theale moored opposite an old mill house which had apparently been owned by Kate Bush and moved on the following morning to Woolhampton. Having struggled with the locks on our own that day we found that the boat that had accompanied us up on the previous day ended up mooring behind us. After chatting for a bit they suggested that we went to the local stores the following morning for breakfast, a bacon buttie and coffee which we readily agreed to.We arrived there at just after 9am " 4 Bacon butties and coffees please" I requested. "Oh sorry, came the reply, we open at 5.30am and all the bacons gone by now" Through my tears I managed to order 4 coffees and we sat outside to enjoy those and were rewarded when she came out a few minutes later to report that she had found some bacon so if we were still interested we could have them. So we did. They took some time to come. We concluded that first they had to kill the pig!

We stayed that day at Woolhampton and leisurely cleaned and polished one side of the boat and the following day moved on to Newbury, luckily accompanied by another super couple who were taking their boat to Newbury to have it blacked. Newbury is a very pleasant town, famous for its 3 battles according to the lady we spoke to in the Tourist information centre, 2 in the Civil war and one over the bypass! The moorings there at West Fields are delightful but unfortunately only 24 hours so this morning we upped sticks again or weighed anchor or de moored or whatever and are now at Kintbury having had to deal with all the locks today on our own. Treated them with respect today as yesterday I had a rope snap on me from the pressure of the water emptying from the lock whist I was waiting to go in.

As its a 48 hour mooring we will have a day off tomorrow to explore the town and hopefully get out of synch with 2 other pairs of boats we keep seeing. Its a bit like the Germans and towels on sunbeds. As mooring is very restricted everyone seems to be setting off earlier and earlier to make sure they have a space and with 5 of us after those spaces someones going to be disappointed and I can see it being us; so hopefully they will move on tomorrow and we wont have such a problem when we go.

Old mill machinery at Kate Bushes old house

Interesting shaped lock wall

Ditto - a so called turf walled lock

From our mooring at West Fields Newbury

Newbury Lock

Notice at Newbury Lock

In the front door out of the back

Monday was a glorious day weather wise but somewhat messy for us. We planned on just going a short way to Mapledurham and mooring there for the night but upon arrival we found only a few mooring spaces, mostly occupied and where we tried to get in was too shallow so we turned around ( a huge treat for us being on the river and just deciding to turn around without having to go miles to find a winding hole) and went back to a very nice mooring at Whitchurch. From there we then walked back to Mapledurham to investigate the location of the pump out facility to use the following day to be told by the lock keeper that it had been broken about 20 minutes earlier by a boater. (Why it hadn’t occurred to us to use it when we were there in the boat I don't know) We were also warned by the lock keeper about the approaching winds the following day and as we had to get off the Thames on Tuesday due to our expiring licence we walked back to the boat and set off again to moor up at Reading to cut down our journey time on Tuesday.

We ended up mooring by the Thames Promenade opposite some very expensive looking houses and left early the next morning to get a pump out at  a local boatyard which to our delight also sold coal so we could start using the fire again. 

(On that point I forgot to mention that when we were moored at Abingdon and asked the boatyard there about coal they didn’t sell it and couldn’t think of anyone that did. I mentioned this in passing to the boat moored next to us and he offered to give us a bag of logs but I said not to worry as I’m sure we would manage. However after we returned from walking the dogs we found they had moved on but left a bag of logs on our roof. Typical kindness of boaters. We know they were heading down the K & A too so we hope we see them again and can buy them a beer or two to say thank you.)

From the boatyard it was a small distance to turning up the K & A but you had to look for it as there were no signs at all and it almost looks just like a backwater. I think old Father Thames has rather a distaste for this genetically engineered Jonny come lately.

We managed a couple of locks but by then the wind was causing havoc and we pulled in to moor where we could in the centre of town. Not the most salubrious of places but it was quiet although litter and graffiti strewn. So we left early this morning (a 7.15am start), as the wind was temporarily quiet, through Reading’s back door of 2 up 2 down Victorian cottages (so different o the front door and the million plus houses) and have made our way to Theale having luckily caught up another boat after the first lock and so shared the work.

Its a pleasant quiet mooring so we may stay here a couple of nights before moving on. The K & A at this end is largely river and one that is flowing quite a bit faster than the Thames was and has some interesting locks, a grass sided one and a crinkly wall one (see below).

Our mooring at Beale Wildlife Trust

On the walk from Whitchurch to Mapledurham

Sheffield Lock, Theale

A boring mooring at Goring

Actually thats not true but I just couldn’t resist it as a headline - perhaps I should go work for the Sun!

Its Sunday pm at the time of writing and we are moored up at Beale Wildlife Trust in the middle of a thunderstorm and the rain is pounding on the roof so hard its difficult to hear each other talk.

We spent two nights at Abingdon and it really is a town worth visiting, very pleasant atmosphere and a wealth of historical buildings with a great display in the town hall of the towns history which included an MGB on the top floor made at the local works before they closed down. At first glance its very much a question of getting a ship in a bottle but rather than have everybody ask the question they have a video showing how they did it. I wont spoil the story in case you do visit. Its also worth a visit to the roof for a view over the town.

On leaving Abingdon I decided to fill up with diesel and as we were going downstream and had quite a strong tail wind I thought it might be easier and safer to turn the boat round and come up to the fuel jetty upstream. WRONG! The river looked as though there was plenty of room to turn around and I suppose there was but both banks were lined with Tupperware and with the strong wind and current controlling Hoddy was nerve racking. I could see myself sideswiping a few cruisers and sending them to the bottom. As it turned out I somehow managed to avoid contact with any and it all went well but something I’ll thing about harder in the future.

From there we moved on to Wallingford, which from reading the guide books sounded as interesting as Abingdon, but its not. Most of the history is Saxon which turns out to be humps in the ground where walls etc once stood. Not as clean or as smart as its near neighbour but perhaps a better selection and mix of independent shops. We stayed the one night on the town moorings which were very convenient location wise but very inconvenient from a boarding perspective as the quayside was about 4 feet above deck level so poor T n T had to be lifted on and off. Off wasn’t so bad but getting them back on board was fraught as Teazle in particular went totally stiff and dug her claws in not to be moved from the towpath.

From there it was down to our “boring” mooring at Goring. Its actually very pleasant, just below the lock, an easy walk into town and plenty of towpath to walk the dogs. Strange town, very small, very pleasant architecture with a larger than expected number of shops, including a bicycle shop a fabric shop and a butchers amongst others.

So from there to our present location. The wildlife trust is only 100 yards or so away but we wont be visiting as its not something for the dogs and I think we can see enough wildlife without paying for it.

Tomorrow we plan another short hop down to Mapledurham and then our holiday ends and we return to the hard work of the canals at Reading. The Thames has been a joy. I didn’t originally think I would enjoy it but its so different from the canals - travelling at supersonic speeds of up to 5 miles per hour, lock keepers on the majority of locks, if not they are electronically controlled or easy to operate, fast acting water supply points that you don't have to spend 45 minutes at to refill - that is going to be quite a shock going back to the slow speed and the heavy locks, especially as in the first 33 miles of canal there are 44 locks and innumerable swing bridges.

A selection of photos around Abingdon:

Wallingfords Town Hall - an imitation of Abingdons really

Interesting church spire at Wallingford

Night time from our mooring at Wallingford

Goring Mill

Sunday afternoons storm approaching