Great Bedwyn

After my traditional Sunday fried breakfast we set off from Crofton this morning at 9:35, me moving ahead to turn the first lock (61), another one that had to be left empty so it was against us, we moved through that one and at the next lock a wide beam was waiting so I was able to leave the bottom gates open for them, a nice little bonus.

The same thing happened at lock 63, things were going well.

Karl attempted a towpath mooring as we approached Great Bedwyn and I passed him as he was attempting to get back on his boat having failed to get close enough to the bank, approaching Bedwyn Church lock (64) I could see a boat almost ready to come out of the lock, lovely I thought, that will save me some work, and then with the lock ¾ full they began to empty it again, a residential boat owner moored close to the lock shouted at them and there was an ‘exchange’ of some sort, so I tied up on the landing and went to investigate, it transpired that the bottom gates were leaking badly and the boat in the lock thought he would empty it and try to get the bottom gates to close better and leak less, a waste of both time and water, but he had a go and shouting at him didn’t help the situation, he thought he was doing the right thing, so meanwhile we waited and the residential boater looked bemused at this waste of water from a pound (the stretch of canal between locks) that was already low, having refilled the lock they came out apologising as they went on their way, life on the canals is such fun :-)

There was a nice two boat gap on the visitor moorings and having not stopped here on the where down we decided to moor up and investigate the village (read pub for village), so having moored up and refreshed we went for a stroll.

A small village but it did have a roundabout.

Some fairly nice cottages

and some even nicer thatched ones.

Two pubs, a railway station, a village store and somewhere a church, I never found that but can hear it now, the bells are ringing out!

We stopped for a drink in the ‘Three Tuns’ at £4 for a pint I wasn’t stopping long!

Tonight’s mooring:

Totals today: 2 miles : 4 locks

Up and over......

....the Kennet and Avon Summit.

So at the moment I am back sharing locks with Karl, we set off this morning at 9am in very dull cloudy weather, I went ahead and set the first lock of the remaining 3 Wooton locks Heathy Close lock (52).

First lock of the day.

Then up through Brimslade lock (53)

Looking back at bridge 106 from inside Brimslade lock.

Then through Wooton Top lock (54) also known as Cadley lock to arrive at the summit, now we start going back downhill. 

Passing Burbage Wharf.

And then back through Bruce tunnel, no flash still, I need to get the book of words out and see if I can set it to always flash before entering tunnels!

And leaving the tunnel behind.

Exiting the East portal.

Arriving at the first of the 9 Crofton locks I was surprised and pleased to find two volounteers, so with one helping us through and one walking ahead to set the next lock it meant for an easy descent, these locks have to be left empty which is no problem when going down them, in fact it's less work as you don't have to lower the bottom gate paddles before you exit, but it is a pain when going up as you have to walk back to raise the bottom paddles.

With all the help and activity I forgot to take any pictures, The moorings at Crofton Pumping Station between the 6th and 7th lock were almost devoid of boats, just 1 narrowboat and 1 wide beam, so it seemed rude not to moor up for the day/night.

A very pleasant cruise of just about 3.5 hours and the sun had now come out.

Tonight's mooring:

Totals today: 4 miles : 9 locks

A bit of a catch up......

.........due to poor internet and a lack of enthusiasm.

On Wednesday I did the short hop up the last three Devizes locks to moor in Devizes for the day/night and re-stock the cupboards, it was a short frustrating trip, the first lock had a broken paddle and took an age to fill, the second lock had an obstruction between the bottom gates which prevented them closing so that took me a while to clear as well but I made it eventually and got a mooring.

On Thursday I set off early again, I am quite keen to get the return trip done and dusted so will press on weather permitting stopping at visitor moorings where possible, most are limited to 24/48 hrs anyway and I have looked at the towns and villages where I could.

Passing Devizes Wharf

 There are some nice canalside properties as you leave Devizes.

And then there is quite a stretch of badly overgrown reeds reducing the canal width severely,
I passed 2 narrowboats in this section, just enough room if you both push into the reeds a bit, fortunately I came across a wide beam in a little section that opened out just enough for me to sneak in to the wider bit and wait for him to pass.

Swing bridge 129 proved no problem with lovely offside landings.

Where it is possible to see above the high vegetation the views are lovely.

Arriving at my destination at Honeystreet I was pleased to see plenty of space, an hour later it was raining and full up, and Karl was moored in front of me.

Last nights mooring:

'The Barge' at Honey Street.

Today we both set off about 9am, Karl went on ahead and I followed along some distance behind, dark clouds overhead and the occasional light shower did not spoil the pleasant trip.

Not a lot of movement from these sheep :-)

 I loved the name and the characters on this one.

Passing Pewsey wharf I saw that Karl had moored up, and as I passed he said he was stopping for brunch, I decided to carry on.

Coming up through Wooton Rivers Bottom lock I asked another boater if the moorings at Crofton were busy and he said they were full when he came through, there was space here on the Wooton visitors just ahead so I decided to call it a day, I topped up with water and moved forward, later on Karl came up the lock and he also decided to stop.

Tonights mooring:

Totals this post: 15 miles : 4 locks : 2 swing bridges

A good day ascending the Caen Hill Flight.

Today started normally, I had a loose plan, get up 26 of the 29 locks before exhaustion caused my demise. I set off around 8am and stopped immediately on the water point to fill up. The cruise to the start of the flight was quiet and uneventful.

Approaching Caen Hill Marina

Lift Bridge entrance to the marina.

Passing the marina and the first of the seven Foxhanger locks is just around the next bend,

First lock of the day, Foxhanger 22.

I went up the seven Foxhanger locks alone and whilst waiting for the last one to fill it was obvious there was a water problem, the level was down about 24" (60cm), a volounteer came along and told me someone had left some paddles up overnight and drained the pounds ahead and further up the flight, they were working on rectifying it. He asked me to keep to the centre of the pound and go straight into the next lock which he would set for me, When I got into the next lock I asked if they wanted me to wait for a boat I thought was following behind me and share, so the lockie checked and agreed, the boat following was not told to keep to the centre of the low pound and never noticed the low water and grounded himself but with help from 3 volounteers they got him moving. From here on things improved dramatically. I was joined by a family of 10, on a 70 footer, so with plenty of crew I only had to assist by organising, sort of, and raising the odd paddle!, lovely jubbly. A very nice family and we went all the way to The Black Horse between locks 47 and 48 together where I left them to it and moored outside the pub, which had been my intention. It had taken around 5.5 to 6 hours overall but was far less work for me than going down the flight!

Crossing boats, one moves to the side,my locking buddy goes in, the other
 boat replaces him in my lock, I then replace him in the other lock and
the boat on the side moves into replace me, easy! and one of many
methods.

Half way up, looking back.

and looking ahead.

Tonight's mooring

Totals today: 3 miles : 26 locks

In the evening a knock on the boat and I found Karl had come along to see me, so we had a drink and a catch up in the pub, a pleasant end to a pleasant day.

‘Twas a strange cruise.....

.....but finished as intended.

I set off this morning with the intention of stopping at Sells Green but if no moorings were available carrying on until I found one, the usual loose plan, set a destination time for about 11:30 when hopefully movers will have moved, and stoppers won’t have yet arrived.

I had the five Seend locks (17-21) and two swing bridges to deal with, so I left my mooring at 9am, plenty early enough for that lot.

The first lock was in my favour so that was no problem.

Entering the first lock (17)

Approaching the second lock a single hander in a plastic cruiser was getting ready to go in, so I thought I’d see how he dealt with it, if he opened both gates maybe that meant he’d seen me and would share, if he only opened one then he wanted to do it solo, at least that was my thinking, he opened both and went in, so I followed but as I was getting quite close he made no effort to pull his boat to the side of the lock and was across it blocking my entry, I reversed back, he walked back to me and asked if I wanted to share, I said “yes but you are right across the lock, how wide are you?”, he didn’t know, I said I didn’t want to squash him, he said “let’s see what happens”, well I wasn’t happy with that, he had about 12 fenders down and I thought I would damage him so I said no, go through alone and I will follow on.

Second lock plastic cruiser about to move into it.

I tied up and helped him through, things then got weird, there was a boat not on the landing and not looking like it was intending to go down the lock (I’m currently going up), so I closed the top gates and went and opened a bottom paddle, as I did so they began to untie so I waved to try and ask if they were going down, no real response, arm signals can be useless, I dropped the paddle and began to walk towards them, they were German and new hirers and yes they wanted to go down but were waiting for me to come up, I explained they should go first to conserve water, blah blah blah, it took ages but we got sorted, after them I went in the lock, finally. Then two young girls appeared wearing life belts, they told me they were doing a Duke of Edinburgh Silver award, there were seven of them in two rowing boats (a 4 and 3 crew) trying to go from Bath to Devizes in 3 days and today was their last day, so at this point they still had 33 locks to deal with, I offered to share the lock with them but they didn’t want to so they helped me through, things did not improve, at the next lock another new hire family, they were very nervous and lacking in any experience, then at the next lock a wide beam hire family who had come down the Caen Hill flight the day before but were extremely slow, I never got frustrated, my advice to newbies has always been ‘take your time’ and this lot all did, so how could I complain or get upset :-)

Another dinky

I got through the first swing bridge without a problem and the second one was the one by the winding hole that had caused me problems coming down because of the windy weather, no problem today and a rambler offered to close it for me, I do love a good offer of help!

I arrived at Sells Green at 11:25 and there was plenty of room, fantastic, having got moored up and made a cuppa I looked back and saw the rowers approaching, it was now midday and they still had 29 locks to do, they were under crewed, it should have been 5 in each boat, I felt very sorry for them and offered words of encouragement as they passed by, the three girls in the second boat did not seem very cheery by now though, but I wished them all good luck and I hope they succeed.

Tonight’s mooring

Totals today: 2 miles : 5 locks : 2 swing bridges

A quiet Sunday.....

......with no need to move.

Over the last week or so my thoughts have turned to ascending the Caen Hill flight and wanting to avoid both a hot day, imagine doing 29 locks in 31° heat, and a weekend, too many gongoozlers, I have been planning progress based on that with the possible bonus of being able to find suitable moorings to watch the Hungarian F1.

As I was preparing to move off yesterday the couple moored a few boats ahead asked if I minded them sharing the lock with me, no problem, in fact it would help me more than it would help them, so the lady walked ahead and set lock 15, once in the lock I joined her to close the bottom gates and then we found that a boat was waiting for someone to fill the lock so that they could reverse into it and go down backwards as they wanted to wind (turn) and the winding hole was further down, so we were able to re-board and leave them to open the top gates, a nice bonus.

Moving from their offside permit holder mooring to reverse into the lock.

Passing Semington Dock where the blue boat was having a facelift with a nice new paintjob.

At lock 16 three boats were waiting to come down but as the lock was in our favour they waited and locked us through, another bonus.

The three boats begin their shuffle into the lock.

I had let my locking buddies go first as I had told them I was looking for a mooring, reaching the next swing bridge they opened it and I passed through and told them I would close it after they had passed, no mooring opportunities yet. The next swing bridge was the one that had defeated me on the way down and I caught them up again as they struggled to get it open as well, I again closed it after they had gone through, closing them is easier because you can get some momentum going.

I saw a potential mooring soon after but despite a valiant effort could not get close enough to the bank, it left me grounded and it was a bit of a struggle to get off again, another attempt further along also proved fruitless. 

Arriving at the next swing bridge 155 they had gone through and closed it so I was glad it was an easy one, another attempt to moor met with failure and I decided the 24 hour visitor mooring before the Seend locks would be my only choice, it would mean another move today but I was ok with that, coming to the end of a line of moored boats on the towpath before the visitor moorings there was a nice big space, deep joy, I was in and free to stay 14 days if I so desired, not that I did desire but it meant no move today and I was able to watch the F1 qualifiying yesterday, visit the pub two locks ahead, the ‘Barge Inn’ which was very busy, and watch the race today. This morning I spent two hours in the sunshine sitting in the bow well deck reading. A good weekend.

Current mooring:

The camera makes the gap look bigger, there's not room for another boat.

Seend lock (17) ahead, the second boat ahead of me is on the 24 hr
visitor mooring, just room for two boats there.

Totals yesterday: 1.5 miles : 2 locks : 3 swing bridges