Heading for Reading.

Yesterday we left Thatcham for the fairly short cruise to Woolhampton at 10:40, another bright but chilly start.

Bridge 42 at Thatcham with Monkey Marsh lock in the distance behind us.

It was a short river section to Colthrop lock (91) and then back to canal until Woolhampton.

Captive for a while within Colthrop lock looking over the bottom gates.

Leaving Midgham lock (92) the landing is below a road bridge and a bit awkward for two boats trying to leave the lock with me wanting to stop after coming out and letting Karl pass but he squeezed through ok, it wouldn't normally be a problem but we have be trying to save legs and backs by only opening one gate going in and out and the one we wanted to go out of was my side this time.

There are lots of swing bridges on the Kennet and Avon, this one is bridge number 35.

After passing through Heale's lock (93) and yet another swing bridge we arrived at an empty Woolhampton visitors mooring around 1pm.

Later that afternoon I walked along a had a couple of beers in the very nice Rowbarge Inn, which apart from being a nice pub with good food, affords good views of the awkward section between lock, river Kennet joining and swing bridge, great fun for gongoozlers in the pub garden when things go wrong, the flows are very tame at the moment but it is really challenging when water levels are high with the current sweeping you into lock wall or swing bridge abutment depending on direction of travel!

With timings to arrive at Reading Friday we set off today with a plan 'A' and a plan 'B', very efficient,

we negotiated leaving Woolhampton lock and passing through the swing bridge (they have to be done as one continuous event) without disaster and with very little holdup for the traffic, more efficiency :-)

Woolhampton mechanised swing bridge.

And passed a couple off nice properties right by the bridge.

It was a steady cruise to Aldermaston another lock bridge (lift this time) combination but a much easier one, although the bridge is on a very busy road and limited hours for boaters avoiding use during rush hour, because between them is a winding hole and a short leg leading to a now disused service point with moorings for two or three boats,this was plan 'A'. having gone through the lock and moored in the leg we both decided we did not like it, so plan 'B' was initiated, cruise on to Theale. So we reversed back out of the leg and set off again through the lift bridge.

Aldermaston lift bridge.

After another couple of locks and swing bridges we stopped at Tyle Mill services to empty and fill, then we were off again,

Waiting for a boat to come up Sulhamstead lock (100)

It was a rather pleasant cruise taking a little over 5 hours including the service stop, the weather was nice, some interesting views and the locks were nearly all working well, even the swing bridges were fairly easy to open and close and a number of them were mechanised.

There were visitor moorings shown at Theale in Pearson's guide but I could not remember them from the downward journey as we hadn't stopped there, but again they were empty when we arrived and quite pleasant so we are here now and will stay tomorrow heading along the final stretch to Reading on Friday morning.

Tonight's mooring

Just ahead, another swing bridge!

Totals this post: 9 miles : 9 locks : 8 moveable bridges