Kennet and Avon (Day 29)

Hi There

So Nicky's now done 89 of her 208 locks plus 17 Swing bridges that I hadn't thought about at the outset. So slowly but surely getting there. 29 of those locks coming in the form of the Caen Hill flight, but a bit more about those later.

Bit of an overcast day, but we're in a fourteen mile section without any locks so can just plod along at our two or three miles an hour.

Another one of the chalk horses, I think Nicky said there are about eight of them along the way.

Nesting time for these swans.

Moored up about midway along this fourteen mile section and Nicky's been busy washing and hanging out the washing on our whirly line.



Came across this on one of walks, it's called a Long Barrow and was only built a few years back as a burial chamber for ashes. Nicky checked, but all the spaces are reserved! Does she know or is she planning something for me!!

Quite a few wide beams on the canal and most of them seem to be hire boats. Full marks to a holiday boater taking one of these out if they're new to boating.

Passing some of the locals

Still on the lock free section, but still a couple of swing bridges to contend with.

Go on girl, you can do it.

Give us a smile then, well on second thoughts  maybe not.

Well at least this swing bridge doesn't look like it'll need opening and closing anytime soon.



Another day another chalk horse.

First look at the Caen Hill flight of locks at Devizes. Sixteen of the little beauties in this section with another six before and seven after when traveling East to West.

And seen from a bit further away on one of walks with The Boys.

And did you know that the pumps that feed the summit of the locks are solar powered.



Hang on, what's this, our youngest son has arrived for a few days with his family and friends. Well ain't that good timing as we've got a twenty nine lock ordeal ahead of us! Of course it wasn't planned, we just happened to get to the top of the flight the day they arrived. . . . honest . . . .

So it's The Caen Hill flight day

Our little man is keeping an eye on us.

Our sons friend Andy hadn't done locks before so he's obviously googling what to do.

Nope, no signal, so I'll just have my coffee and let the girlfriend do all the work instead.

All hands to the pump, well locks in this case as Nicky's on lock duty

And Dec's as well although our little man wonders why dad's all the way up there.

Certainly speeds things up when you've got four doing the locks instead of just one, in fact, we were catching up the couple in front quite quickly so they waited for us and then there were five doing the locks.

It's also so much easier leaving and entering double locks together if the other boater is happy to. Whilst this one wasn't to sure at first having never done it before she thought it was great. Virtually no wind either that helped.

We ended up doing twenty seven of the twenty nine locks in four hours that is pretty good going considering they estimate it to take five to six hours.

But enough for one day and moored in the pound next to a self catering place that allowed us to leave our sons car there overnight.

And then a peaceful colourful finish to the day.

The Boys do like their walks, but not when there's a cat about

Especially one that ain't moving

They got past in the end though

After a few days in our pound mooring we thought we'd best get on with our journey and sett off through the last two locks.

But only about a mile along though, I mean what's the rush.

Then it was out with The Boys for a walk.

With a water stop on the way.



And looking back at where we'd moored. How good is that, civilisation, who needs it.

It's a dog life being dragged out for walks all the time so time for a bit of rest and relaxation.

And one can't finish off without some of Nicky's wildlife shots from along the way.

First signets we've seen this year.

Getting a bit close to a swan nest and a lot of noise and commotion there was to let us know he wasn't pleased with us.

So that brings us up to date with our travels and finds us moored below the locks at Seend Cleeve, one of the strangest named places we've come across, but there's no doubt a story behind it.

And so in signing off,

Day 1384 in the Badger Sett Narrow boat - 2966 miles, 1874 locks and 1486 cruising hours further on from when we started.