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.
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| One of the famous white horses |
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| 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 |
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| 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! |
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| A novel form of narrowboat - a converted lifeboat |
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