A quiet time

Some while since my last blog but its been a relatively quite period for us and I’ve had nothing really to report that was likely to get you all excited.

From Crofton we moved up to Gt Bedwyn for a couple of days and enjoyed the walking there but were disappointed to find that the village bakery which did superb bread and cakes was closing down that week as they were being required to update their ovens which was not practical from a cost point of view. Another victory for good old health and safety and loss for common sense.

From there another short hop to Froxfield where we found for the first time on this canal a good unrestricted mooring in a pleasant setting so we spent 5 nights there. It had the advantage of a good pub only a 15 minute walk away and plenty of footpaths for walking. We took the opportunity of cleaning and polishing the boat too as we were near a winding hole so could turn it round and do both sides at the same time, a rare luxury.

From there it was on to Hungerford and back to the mooring nightmare. We did just manage to moor up although the first night entailed being “in the rough” and just managing to get the nose in to disembark. The following morning however some boats did move which enabled us to get on a proper mooring and we had a further couple of nights there.

Then on to Avington Manor, another unrestricted mooring which we had spotted on our way out which looked as though it would be beautifully quiet as it only had an estate road passing it. Unfortunately British Rail or Network Rail or whatever they call themselves these days were repairing a bridge over the canal a few hundred yards away which seemed to involve various vehicles including tracked diggers and fork lift trucks driven by Lewis Hamilton wannabes passing the boat every half an hour or so. So after a day of that  we moved on to Kintbury for a couple of nights and then on to Newbury where we actually booked into a marina for 2 nights. 

We had met a boater at Devizes who had had his (and 2 other boats) ropes cut one night moored at Victoria Park, Newbury and then met another boater who had heard about boats having paint thrown over them at Westfields, Newbury so we decided that a few pounds for a marina berth would be worth it for peace of mind. From there with an early 7am start on to our current location at Woolhampton which we managed to arrive at before the rush at 11.30am so secured a good mooring and will be here a couple of days. 

The last few days I’ve started using our bike to cycle between locks and swing bridges leaving Sarah to do the steering and its working very well. We reckon that it saved something in the order of an hour on todays journey as I could get the locks set and bridges open for Sarah to be able to sail straight in every time. I cant see it working on every canal but certainly if you are doing the K & A its worth thinking about.

Little Bedwyn

Gt Bedwyn

Avington Manor churchyard

Misty morning leaving Kintford

View from Lock 79