Beginning of March and awaiting for Seend bridge to be opened following it's winter closure due to damage!
4 April
Well we've made a start, after spending the weekend at Sells Green where we sorted the boat ready for the great adventure, we set off to cruise up to ' The Cottage' as we call it 7 locks up and at the foot of the main flight ready for an assault on the east face of Caen Hill tomorrow (Tues), good timing on our part as we just moored up and it started to rain, lets hope tomorrow is drier!
5 April
Well we were up at the crack of sparrows getting the hood down in readiness, an early morning mist slowly giving way to a sunny morning, we were in the lock at 7:50 waiting for the lock keeper to unchain it, then we were off, climbing 3 locks before Jo, one of our lock angels for the day, joined us, soon to be followed by Derek and Jack and the odd asst. lock keeper, so fuelled by coffee and tea we climbed the 240' to Devizes arriving at the wharf just after mid day 22 locks later having stopped for lunch en route. We'll be staying here for a few days before we head off east towards the mighty Thames, watch this space. Thanks again to our lock angels for their help.
5-12 April
We've spent this week preparing the boat for our trip our friend Dave has been and built us a cupboard over the tv for our glasses (& JD bottle) and we've cleared the junk so we are ready to roll,Friday, and our friends Dave and Ange on Solstice join us for a pub meal and a bevvy or three as it's the last time we'll see them for awhile as they are off to the drydock then towards Bristol and we're heading the other way.
13-15 April
Well we're off, awoke to a sunny day we finally cast off and headed east enjoying the 12 lock free miles to Wooton Rivers and moored above Wooton Rivers lock for the night, this lock was used as the home of David Essex's character in the series 'The River' in the early 80's although I seem to be the only one who remembers it! The following day we set off up the final 3 uphill locks and through the Bruce Tunnel before reaching the the first of many downhill locks that will take us down into the Thames Valley and Reading, we were pleased to see the top 3 locks manned by volunteer lockkeepers so made good progress once we'd shown them how to operate locks! We stopped for lunch by the Crofton pumping Station, an old steam pump that used to raise water from a reservior up to the summit to maintain the water levels, today an electric pump does the job. We cruised on to Great Bedwyn where we moored for the night. The morning saw the weather change to cold and damp as we set off for Hungerford and before long were treated to showers, some heavy, so we arrived at our destination a little damp, we consoled ourselves with a meal in the local pub.
17 April
Awoke to sunshine so after a visit to the local supermarket we weighed anchor (25kgs if anyone is interested :) ) and continued on to Kintbury, from here we will be on and off the R. Kennet all the way to Reading so are a little more at the mercy of the flow, so far so good, along as it doesn't rain too heavily!
18 April
We've arrived at Newbury, the stream is not too bad and we will stay here for a day or two so if it doesn't rain the stream should die down before we get nearer Reading as it can cause problems trying to moor.
21April
Arrived at the Cunning Man pub at Burghfield on the outskirts of Reading, our last stop before the mighty Thames, we arrived here just after lunch having stopped for the night at Woolhampton lock, below this lock the river rejoins and propels you through the, hopefully, open swing bridge, the stream increases as it goes through as it's quite narrow and at an angle, just after there is a jetty where you have to stop to pick up the crew member who was working the bridge, if you miss it's a long walk! Luckily the couple on a boat behind us offered to open the bridge so we could whizz through without me risking leaving Shelley behind! We had a good run down to our mooring where we were visited by the local duck squad demanding our mooring fee.
We shall stay here til monday, giving us time to explore the seething metropolis. Spent friday in Reading looking round the shops and on saturday my friend Dave from Surrey came to visit, had a good day followed by an enjoyable evening playing cards in the local pub, today we shall be back there for a sunday roast and tomorrow we will head down through Reading and out onto the Thames.
25 April
Up early and top down ready for the off only to be pipped to the post by an even earlier riser so had to wait around as didn't want to catch them up on tricky river section with a lock with room for one boat before the weir!! we made it down through Reading safely and out onto the Thames then disaster, but you'll have to read Thames blog!
