The turning point.

Yesterday I moved on again, it was cloudy and cool and by mid morning wet, just heavy continuous drizzle, horrid.

Now if I owned this boat I paint a big smiley mouth beneath the central tyre J

I didn’t take any pictures for most of the route because of the rain, the first problem was swing bridge 178 which a widebeam was dealing with as I approached, unfortunately due to lack of access on the non towpath side he tried to push the gate open with a mighty heave from the towpath side, of course it stopped mid open, leaving him unable to reach it, I eased into the far bank and walked along the gunnels to leap off the bow with bow rope in hand and open the gate the remaining way. He told me to go through first and he would close it after he’d gone through, I hope he managed it.

At the second swing bridge 182, I was just about to repeat the procedure when a young cyclist stopped for a breather, I shouted would he open it for me and he kindly did, nice lad, not all ‘yoofs’ are bad J.

The rain eased off as I entered the outskirts of Bath.

Entering bath you have to negotiate the two short tunnels, the first being Sydney Gardens tunnel and the second is Cleveland tunnel with Cleveland house above it, here’s a view of the second one from each direction.

After passing through both I winded by Bath Narrowboats and the Anglo Welsh hire base, I was a bit busy winding so took a picture later, this is as far as I intend to go on the Kennet and Avon, I have no real desire to visit Bristol even though it’s only a day’s cruise away, and I’ve just heard on the radio that this weekend is the Bristol Harbour Festival, they are expecting 250,000 people to visit so it’ll be busy!

The end of the trip for me.

I then passed back through the tunnels, this is Sydney Gardens tunnel with one of the two ornate iron bridges dated 1800 that are between the tunnels.

I then moored in the first available spot on the visitor moorings, a pleasant enough cruise which took longer than anticipated because of the number of moored boats, but there was far less than I had imagined from what I had read about this area and it was only the drizzle that spoiled it.

Current mooring

Totals today: 4 miles : 2 swing bridges.

Later I took a walk mainly to find The Royal Crescent, what a let down, took me 30 minutes to walk there, and it looked drab, although it does look like cleaning is in progress, not one top-hatted doorman in sight, no butlers, no hansom cabs, just goes to prove what you see on telly is not always the truth! And tourists everywhere, they obviously watch telly too.

Bath is both big and impressive and small and quaint, here’s a few more pics of the journey to and from The Royal Crescent.

This is another example of the curved frontages at The Circus

The street names are carved into the stone, it makes reading them difficult but with SatNavs does anyone bother these days, this is Bennett Street and Saville Row.

Slightly better weather today but I am feeling very under it, I’ve felt like something has been brewing all week and today I think ‘man-flu’ is trying to break through, aching joints and a temperature have meant  the ibuprofen has come out of the bathroom cabinet, but I bravely got myself moving and went for a walk further along the towpath.

It is a beautiful well maintained area with plenty of things to admire and hire boat antics to ‘gongoozle’, taking care to sidestep some of the lycra clad cyclists or risk the wrath of the ‘tinkle’ from the bell, most are well behaved but some of the 30year+ men cycling on their own could benefit from the odd puncture (on the bike not the body).

So to keep this last bit short as I am feeling poorly, go on say aawww, here’s my pictorial walk along the towpath as far as Bath bottom lock.

He didn't care about me, he walked out of my way but never flew off.

A sundial and it was accurate although an hour behind presumably
because of British Summer Time.

Bath Deep lock, it's numbered 8/9 because two locks were combined
during restoration work in 1976, at 19'5" it's England's second deepest
lock, the deepest being Tuel Lane lock on the Rochdale at 19'8½".

That's a lot of slippery steps.

Anglo Welsh still had a few boats not out and about.

It is going to be busy in the pubs tonight, at least 5 stag do's, 3 hen parties and one very large wedding party boat have passed by my mooring this afternoon, at that's only what I've seen. Nearly all dressed as pirates, it's not unusual as Tom Jones would say.

An early night with a medicinal Brandy me thinks.