Why do they do it????

The dog poo bin was not full. Why, Oh why do the dog owners not put the dog poo in the bin!!!

Stalling for time

I see that I have not blogged for a while. That does not mean that we have not been to Constance and moved along the canal. We are stalling for time. We are not ready to go out on to the River Thames yet. This means staying on the K&A for a while longer. We stopped for a while by Midgham Lock, whilst we were there we saw this little steam yacht.

They've just put on some dirty coal!

Pendlebury

She left at speed but hardly a ripple.

Judy operating one of the many swing bridges

Woolhampton Swing Bridge

Aldermaston Wharf Lock with its curved sides

Lookout! Strong currents!

A bit of leakage!

Aldermaston Lift Bridge

These electric bridges make life easier but they do hold up the traffic so you need to be quick.

To Thatcham and beyond

After spending the Bank Holiday weekend in and around Newbury we have now moved on, first to Thatcham and now beyond into the open countryside.
This meant we had to go through 'Monkey Marsh Lock', which is different - it does not have brick or stone side walls, they are turf.
The lock is longer and appears to be wider than others with a steel framework down the middle to keep the boats in place.

'Constance' waiting in Monkey Marsh Lock

Going down, revealing the vegetation

Now you can see the retaining boards at the bottom

And a nice empty mooring at Thatcham

Weekend in Newbury

From Kintbury we moved on and stopped for a few days at Marsh Benham, here approaching Copse Lock 71.

 



Which is where the main body of the River Kennet first joins the canal (from the right under the footbridge). There is now a variable rate of flow to consider.





Guyers Lock was leaking well, there must have been some debris caught in the right hand paddle. It took a long time to empty!

 As we enter Newbury we meet our first electrically operated swing bridge.

 Judy at the ready as she lowers the road barriers and operates the electric swing bridge

 Now open...

And ready for the lock...





Now we are at Newbury Lock. Thankfully there are no onlookers at the Lock Stock & Barrel to watch our white knuckle ride on to the fast flowing Kennet.

And very quickly we were under the Town Bridge and out the other side.

Hungerford and beyond

We arrived in Hungerford just before the first kayak. I later found out that the start of the race was delayed because of an unfortunate incident in Devizes,

 The first kayak through Hungerford. Running past us to 'portage' past Hungerford Town Lock. As time went on the number of kayaks per minute increased to we went for a walk around the town...

 past Hungerford Wharf and then up the main street, on the lookout for a nice pub or restaurant for our evening meal.
We decided to make an early start on Saturday morning to get ahead of any remaining kayaks and moved on towards Kintbury. I had to walk back to Hungerford to fetch the car and noticed several breaches of the bank. I foresee a problem!

Breached towpath bank between Kintbury & Hungerford

Good Friday in Great Bedwyn

Spending Good Friday morning in or very close to Great Bedwyn is a must. The village bakery makes the best hot cross buns for miles around. Having bought a couple of dozen to see me through the next couple of days it was time to move on.

Even though the tide was very high we are touching the bottom and listing well. This makes for a very uncomfortable nights sleep. With the approaching kayaks on the Devizes to Westminster race it was time to move on to Hungerford.
There are now by-wash channels for each of the locks. This means that the canal is not losing water to the river system and that all the tide levels are high.

Changes at Church Lock

When we first bought Constance we had a home mooring on the non-towpath side just above Church Lock at Great Bedwyn.

We used to live in that gap...



C&RT have built a new- by-wash on the towpath side.

Very smart it is too.

 Apparently the EA do not like canal water spilling into their rivers (in this case the Dun) because canals have too little oxygen and too much algae. C&RT would rather keep their water that lose it to the rivers. This by-wash links to the next pound and allows excess water to flow past the lock rather than running over the top of the lock gates.

Looking back...