Locked out

Hi everybody,

Only five miles covered today, but in those five miles we've come through 34 locks and 2 swing bridges.

We set off after breakfast from Devizes basin at 9:15 and straight into our first lock. Of course it was empty and so were the next three we came to. This worked in our favour though, as another boat caught up to us. This was great as they had a crew of 14 souls. Just in time to help us down Caen hill. Quite a sight from the top.



We worked up a good rhythm and soon we were ticking off the locks at a respectable rate.




The lock keeper has a new nemesis, the Wigan flight is easy after this lot. Plus everything works on the Wigan flight and the locks fill quickly. Not here they don't





By 1pm we were at the bottom.


If anything the view back up the hill is even more stunning.

The captain was pleased,





but that's not the end of it.



There are another 7 locks waiting for you round the corner and we had to do these by ourselves. They were all running in our favour and we soon got through them. Which lead us onto a lovely two mile lock free stretch with just 2 swing bridges, one of which was stuck of course!

Then came another flight of 5 locks, we got through them by 5pm and called it quits for the day. Not many miles covered but we've had to work for them.

On the plus side there are now only 15 locks left between us and Bristol.

Life on the wild side

Hi blog watchers,

Sorry it's been a while but the Kennet and Avon is a wild canal, not in a dangerous sense but in a back to nature unkempt way.




We haven't passed through many big towns, just small villages and therefore mobile phone signals have been weak or non existent for blogging.

The last big place we passed was Newbury.




This used to be, two hundred years ago, as far as you could navigate. So to this day there is no tow path under Newbury bridge.



It's been hard going too. We've been stopped in our tracks by a broken swing bridge, a tree across the canal and yesterday a closed lock. Fortunately this was at Crofton, home of the worlds oldest steam engine still performing it's original task. So we went and had a look around. They should say " occasionally " performing. Only fires up once in a blue moon.




Even when the locks are open they seem to take an eternity to fill up. The winding gear stiff and awkward to operate and the gates heavy and unyielding. They seem to have been borrowed from any number of other canals. After all this you don't even get a good nights sleep because the railway line is only ever six feet away and it's not a sleepy branch line either, express trains and huge freight trains thunder by every five minutes.

We made it to the summit pound, through Bruce tunnel



and dropped down the other side into a blissful 15 miles of lock free cruising through the land of the large white horse.



It's also crop circle country and we stopped at the Barge inn, an international crop circle centre. With maps showing all crop circle locations, full of hippie drop out types drinking cider. Any connection ????????????

Apart from being a wild canal it's also a very heavily defended one too. There are many pill boxes and tank traps along it's length obviously from the war, but why so many ? they are every half mile or so.

We arrived in Devizes today and had a look around the K&A trusts museum. They had a section dedicated to the war. The Kennet and Avon was designated as a stop line, if the Germans had made it across and we failed to hold them on the beaches. It was known as the blue line. There were 170 pill boxes along it's length of which 130 still exist. The K&A would have become the next front line.

Tomorrow we descend the Caen hill flight 16 closely packed locks with another 13 either side. A total of 29 locks in a little over two miles. Big breakfast will be needed.

PS, Mr B don't be late!

Lock buddies

Now sharing a lock with another boat is quite an intimate process, increasingly so as you work a series of locks together. Your 'lock buddy' can make the world of difference.

You can't help but reveal something of yourself, first impression is the type and style of craft, your appearance and the way that you greet your circumstantially arranged buddy. There is a small amount of choice, common sense dictates that if you're heading in the same direction, you should work together - deciding to 'take a break' rather than join forces is an option, rather a desperate measure though.

There are a number of ways to approach going up or downhill and it is a real pleasure to move with boaters that work in a similar way to yourself and crew. Interaction is minimal at first, just enough to make progress, gradually learning more about each other, where from, where going to. When is a 'conversation' deemed to occur? Its more than just swapping minimal words and goes beyond the 'small talk'. Safe subjects like canals, boats and navigation can become vivid, peppered with personal experiences and opinion.

Today (yesterday now!) we travelled 14 miles, climbed 18 locks, swung ten bridges, lifted one, it was a long day. The lock keeper will tell you himself no doubt. We travelled with one boat for a large part of the day and benefitted from snippets of history (how the K and A was restored) and a wealth of local information supplied by a lovely husband and wife team. For instance the lock in the picture above, another weird lock we thought. Its officially an example of a turf sided lock and is scheduled as an ancient monument by English Heritage. However it was actually reconstructed as part of the restoration of the canalised river and when its was first filled at the opening ceremony, most of the recently installed turf floated to the surface which was rather embarrassing.

We parted company at Newbury, as daughter and mother joined our buddy and they moored up for a while. Nice to see the generations either side of the couple that we learned quite a lot from and about during the day.

Many locks lie ahead, I wonder who we will 'buddy up' with next time...

A bridge too far

Hi gang lock keeper here, so you're not going to learn anything today. The captain gives you all sorts of facts and figures and uses big words in her blogs. We didn't post a blog yesterday because it got quite late by the time we moored up.

We finished off the Thames with it's fine locks and grand bridges.




Though we had to be extra good in the locks as the river police were with us.




Just before the Kennet & Avon we found a large supermarket and stopped for supplies. The trolley boy wasn't too happy when we by passed the trolley gate and made off up the tow path. We took his precious trolley back and all was well.




Then it was onto the K&A canal and another first for us, traffic lights on a canal.



They get you through the city centre, you literally split the shopping centre.

What we hadn't realised is that the Kennet & Avon is more river than canal, so mooring is very difficult. It was 9:30 pm before we found a half decent spot for the night.






This morning started off well, we got to the first lock and let ourselves in. Don't know what the thinking behind it is, but the lock walls only go half way up the lock !


A couple more strange locks and we came to our first swing bridge, a broken swing bridge.



After a while a few boats had collected and quite a crowd gathered. The cars weren't having much fun either, all the traffic lights showed red.


The boaters put themselves to work and waved the cars through.

Eventually the BW man arrived and fixed the bridge and we got back under way. All was going well until,



A tree has fallen across the canal. " Might be Tuesday before it's moved" said the BW man. So here we sit waiting for Tuesday and a man with a chain saw.

Nothing sets the captain back, the bathroom has been cleaned to within an inch of it's life, and the ships ducks have been adapted for their new role as mooring pin markers.




Not to worry the fridge is full and the telly works again, and we have had the good fortune to be stuck in a beautiful location.

the £27 day

greetings from your favourite transient Northerners, oh yes we are now officially transient but we don't mind being called that as it means we only have to pay £27 to do the 40 miles of the Thames from Oxford to Reading, where we'll join the Kennet and Avon.

It was an early start, as per advice from an ex-Thames lockeeper that we'd chatted with earlier in the week, we locked down from the Oxford Canal into Sheepwash channel


and turned left on to the Thames.

Its all very grand, even the lock keepers cottages are in a different league


We happened upon a very English event, the Queen's Swan Keeper and 19 other men and a supply of 'tea' (made with dark rum and milk), take to the river in the third week of July to ceremonially mark the swans.

This tradition dates from the 12th C when swans were an important source of food. There are about 1200 swans on the Thames these days. Yum.

Lock keepers are a varied, but all somewhat strange breed. When there's not much to do they can indulge in tending to the lockside garden, here's one of our favourites.


There are lots of grand houses, like this one


can't help but wonder what their flood damage insurance premiums are like.

We're allowed to moor up anywhere on the towpath side as long as we don't block the navigation channel, so we've found ourselves a verdant little place to spend the night.


where I trust we'll sleep well, night night folks.

Dreaming spires

Oxford, one big university with a city mixed in.

There is one stereotype that is very true,

We joined the masses on our own bikes, peddled into town and caught a tour bus. Siting on the top deck of an open topped bus we did one lap listening to the commentary and getting our bearings and spotting places of interest to come back to.

First stop was the Alice in Wonderland shop, selling all manner of curious things. Originally it had been the shop that the real Alice, of the story, went to buy sweets.

Next stop was St Mary's church where we climbed to the top of the tower to look out over the dreaming spires.



Medieval architecture is a little on the cramped side,



and quite crude too !



that's a nun cupping her, well you work it out. There are also vomiting monks. Nice.

But there is plenty of fine stuff too.



We went into the Bodleian library which is just behind the Radcliffe Camera pictured. Never found out why it was called a camera. Then round the corner to Oxford's bridge of Sighs.




An American lady asked us " is that it !???!" Lucky she hadn't gone to Venice or she'd have been really disappointed. We then cut across the courtyard in the background to find somewhere to sit and have our packed lunch. We found a fine set of grand stone steps just as it started to rain. When a tour guide and her group of students came running over to share the shelter as the rain turned into a full blown thunder storm. We learnt a lot from our new neighbours extended stop and lecture on the structure of college life.

When the rain abated we made it to the history of science museum before jumping back on the bus and heading back into the city centre for a spot of shopping. Then back to the bikes and Maya, it's hard work this tourist business.

We're back !

We've been on our holidays, sort of. We had to go back to the real world to do a few things.

We left you in Banbury from there we headed south to a little place called Lower Heyford where there were long stay moorings and a handy railway station.



We secured Maya, watered the plants and waited for a train to take us back to Banbury and another train back up to Manchester.



Back up north I went and did the VHF radio course and passed too. I'm now qualified to operate and use marine VHF radio equipment.

Then we had to kill time until we found out about collecting our new boat. The devil will find work for idle hands and he pushed me in the direction of the bike shop. I traded in my two old bikes and got a new one more suited to two up travel so the captain and I can roam around in comfort.

We hadn't seen rain in months but we got plenty that week, which as it happened was something of a blessing because we got the call to pick the new boat up on Thursday. More water in the locks which was a good thing.

The next day we sailed Chug to Wigan, bit of a culture shock, it's like stepping up from a car to a truck, he's huge.

Then on the Saturday morning we ascended the infamous Wigan flight with the VERY gratefully received help Mum & Dad D, Skipper Tony and crewman Kelly. Thank you guys.

Sorry no pictures, we forgot the camera. D'oh

With all missions complete we headed back south to the sun. Maya was fine and the flowers had survived too, but the fridge was empty and there was no phone signal to let anyone know we'd arrived or blog. So the next morning we struck out for Thrupp. Tiny little place, maybe a dozen houses and a pub.


Not just any pub but a pub used in an episode of Morse no less. There was also a shop in the next village a short walk away where stocked up.

Then today we made our way under clear blue skies down to Oxford, though the going was not all easy.



We made it to a mooring just a few minutes walk from the city centre,


where tomorrow we'll play proper tourists, catch a tour bus and everything.

Then in the evening we had a walk to look at our next challenge.





The Thames.

Rush hour

Another nice if somewhat dull day.

We set off this morning and had the canal to ourselves for the first couple of locks. Then a holiday boater pulled out right in front of us and stole our lock. He did it to somebody else too, shut the gates in their face and happily wasted a few thousand gallons of water.

He soon slowed down when we caught up with the pack, rush hour on the cut. Never really goes away once it's built up because you meet everybody again at the next lock.



You have to be philosophical about these things, enjoy the rest, have a good look around, chat to the other boaters, say hello to the curious cows.



The captain has a new hat, just in case I forget who's in charge. I have been enrolled on a radio operators course so I can get a VHF radio licence. That will allow us to travel on the tidal stretches of the Thames.

Liquorice pipe for added effect.

We stopped along our route at Copredy, which has a connection with Fairport Convention, and had a pint in the 15th century pub.

We then continued to Banbury, where we shall look for a cross in the morning, and poured over our campaign map. We are creeping ever further south.

Green day

The day didn't start well. Two holiday boats had moored in the lock pound and got the drop on us this morning. They were absolutely clueless. The boat in front of us lost their rag with them and gave them a frank appraisal of their skills. The captain wasn't too happy about the situation either.

Once clear of the locks we got past them and the day improved considerably.

Today we did green, lots of green, vast amounts of green that stretched as far as the eye could see. With little else apart from the odd isolated farm.



Even in the middle of nowhere the gongoozlers found us.



We think they are Buffalo, definitely not your average cow.

The day continued in much the same vein, huge expanses of green and vast blue skies.

So this tight bit came as a bit of a surprise!




It didn't last long, it was an old tunnel that has been opened out near the delightfully named village of Fenny Compton. Then it was back out into the fields and moored up for the day.