After 412 miles, 396 locks and 12 tunnels we have arrived! The morning started out OK, but then we got into a queue at Bourton lock. One boat in the lock and four waiting. In the last 6 weeks or so we have hardly had to queue at all, and here we are only a
The awful weather predicted didn`t arrive. It has been very windy, but mostly sunny with occasional short showers. The canal has been quite busy, we have seen more boats today than any day in the last week or so. Tomorrow we should be at our new mooring in the marina at Cropredy. A new experience
The weather forecast for today was dire. It spoke of high winds and heavy rain from 11 o’clock onwards. So we decided to make an early start and were on the way by 6:45. The river was cloaked in mist, giving a magical, ethereal quality to everything. It was difficult at times to see where
In order to get as far up the Thames as we could before the bad weather set in we made another early start. Doing the forst two locks before the lack keepers came on duty. In fact the weather wasnt too bad and we made good progress to stop fro the night just above Clifton
Autumn is coming. The mornings are cold and misty. The evenings are chilly and it’s dark by eight. Some of the trees are turning colour and the vegetation is looking tired. The waterside hedgerows are laden down with fruit, blackberries, elderberries, hip, haws and crab apples. Thirteen miles and fourteen locks today. We are moored
When I. K. Brunel built the Great Western Railaway line from London to Bristol, for much of the way from Reading onwards, he followed the line of the Kennet & Avon canal. This gave him two advantages. Firstly Rennie had already surveyed a fairly level route and overcome some of the geographic obstacles, and secondly
13 miles, 22 locks Another early start. The sky looked promising as we got up, but it gradually deteriorated throughout the day, getting more grey and overcast which turned to rain at about 2:30. The locks on the Kennet side of the summit are hard work. We found this a fortnight or so ago as
Sunrise at the bottom of the locks We left early to work through the first four locks up to No. 29. There were already three boats waiting. The flight was unlocked early and two made a start up before eight. We followed at 8:10 with NB ‘Rosewood’. We made a good team and, even though
After a good night’s sleep we breakfasted and were on our way by 8:30. We had arranged to meet my sister San and brother-in-law John at Avoncliff aqueduct at around 10 o’clock. They were waiting for us as we arrived. They hopped on board and we took them for a little trip to Bradford on
We drove back from Bicester to meet Liz, Simon and family at Bathampton for a picnic. Nikki & Paul were so exhausted after the weekend that they crashed out on our bed for a while. We moved the boat a few hundred yards along away from the busy pub, then The Davies family left and