What an eventful day we have had today. Having done the food shopping last night we didn’t
have any spare hands to carry any booze and the supplies were almost dry so we
popped back to Sainsbury’s this morning.
We then pushed off, literally, we were stuck on the bank so we had to
use the pole to get of the canal side!
We both agreed that it is nice cruising early in the day (7.45am) as
there is hardly anyone else about and you have the whole canal and surrounding
countryside to yourselves.
The countryside around here continues to impress with it’s
rolling hills and deep valleys – it looks so different at 3mph on the canal
than it does at 80mph on the motorway which is usually how we see this part of
the country.
By 10am there are other people beginning to set off too –
there does seem to be a lot of hire boats on this canal but it is the summer
holidays after all.
I got off the boat and opened a swing bridge and there was a
chap coming along the towpath who said he was coming through the other way (in
a day hire boat!) so we agreed that we would leave it open and he would close
it. Only trouble is I am now on the
wrong side of the canal for Steve to moor and pick me up so he had to come though
the bridge at an angle with the back of the boat near enough to the edge for me
to jump on board which I did to a round of applause from six cyclists on the
towpath who had stopped to see bridge being opened, either that or they were
waiting to cross it!
We chugged along this stretch with a hire boat called Leah
that had a family on board and the two boys were fishing off the side of the
boat. Just as Steve said they will never
catch anything like that the younger of the two boys started to real in his rod
– he had caught a pike and had to call his older brother to come and get it out
for him!
We then turned the corner and caught up with Rob on Weston
Lady in Bathampton – he had overtaken us while we were still in Caen Hill
Marina but we stayed in touch and planned to hook up again. We are going to do the Bristol Channel together. As we were moored three young people came
along and asked if we lived on board so I said yes and they asked if they could
ask some questions about alternative energy so we said yes, then Steve and Rob
made a hasty retreat so left me to it!!
We left Bathampton and made our way through Bathwick where
there are five locks in quick succession.
It was in the last of the five that we had an OMG moment. I’m still not firing on all cylinders as I still
have a sore throat but I didn’t fancy being in charge of the boat either as it
was pretty windy and thought operating the locks was less challenging! Anyway I get the lock
open and in chug Steve and Rob. There are
four guys sitting on the grass – not meaning to stereotype... but obviously not
at work, look old before their time, tattoos on their faces, not in possession of
all their teeth, in need of a good bath and haircut and high on something – you
get the type I mean and one says to Rob can I take a line for you. As Rob is on his own he usually comes into
the lock, gets off the boat, ties the centre line onto a bollard then closes
the gate behind him on his side and opens the paddle on the front gate – I am
on the other side of the lock doing the same, Steve is on the boat. So Rob thinks ok what harm can it do? We are at the front gates, we’ve opened the
paddles and the water is leaving the lock, Rob would then usually go back and
hold the boat steady. When you are
travelling downstream you enter the lock when it is full, the rear gates sit on
a huge concrete block called the cill, then in front of the cill is the pound
that holds the water at the same level as the canal downstream. There are always signs on the lock saying
keep boat forward of cill marker (you do hear the odd story about a boat getting
it’s rear end stuck on the cill then the front of the boat tips so it is under
the waterline in the pound and starts taking water on board - and we all know how
heavy water is - it is then impossible to re-float the front of the boat as it
has so much water on board) you know what’s coming....
Rob looks back and suddenly realises that this guy is
holding the boat tight to the back of the lock so he dashes back and says hey
buddy we need to pull the boat forward so they start to pull on the rope and it
won’t budge, Steve jumps onto Weston Lady to put it in forward gear but the
engine is not running so he starts it but the boat won’t budge so he shouts
STOP. Do you know how long it takes to
close a paddle when you are in a panic – I get my side closed as quickly as
possible, Rob runs back and closes his, I run up to the other end and open the
paddle to refill the lock – by this time I can see the rudder and the bottom of
the back end of Weston Lady resting on the cill.
It takes a few minutes but thankfully the front re-floats. We carry on and moor up in the centre of Bath
at which point Rob empties a bucket full of water from the front cratch, the
carpet and everything in there is wet – we think we were about 60 seconds away
from disaster.... can’t believe I didn’t get a photo! We all needed a drink
after that.
We had dinner on board and are going to stay here for a couple of days to see Bath and wait for
Claire who is arriving on Friday.
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| There we are, second boat along - wedged on the canal side in Bradford on Avon! |
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| The booze run at 7.30am! |
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| Bradford on Avon |
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| All hire boats should have 'L' plates! |
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| Mr and Mrs River Rat! |
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| Manned swing bridge - that's handy. |
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| Every canal should have one! |
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| Shame they were closed! |
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| Approaching Avoncliffe Aqueduct |
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| Stunning views. |
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| I'm standing on the roof trying to get a better picture! |
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| The wier |
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| Can you spot the rowers at the top of the wier? No neither can I but I did see them when I took the photo! |
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| At last a nice boat with nearly my name! |
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| Limpley Stoke Bridge |
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| Must have taken ages to paint this. |
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| And ages... |
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| Fishing boat! |
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| Dundas Aqueduct |
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| Entrance to Somersetshire Coal Canal - it is only about half a mile long. |
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| Our niece! |
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| Moss - the new paint! |
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| Drowned Rat! |
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| Great catch. |
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| More babies. |
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| Happy grass! |
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| We can't go much slower than this... |
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| Bathampton - meeting up with Rob. |
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| Not sure what this is supposed to be or do! |
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| The beautiful Bath Tunnels |
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| And ornate bridges |
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| The second tunnel. |
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| Small world - Steve our mechanic from Caen Hill Marina fixing a hire boat in Bathwick! |
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| Bathwick |
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| Bath Deep Lock - apparently the second deepest in the Country. This kind chap let Rob and I get back on the boats as we didn't fancy climbing down these steps. |
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| Look at the size of the cill - thank goodness it wasn't this lock hey Rob? |
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| I said to Steve only this morning that I had only seen two Kingfishers since we left Roydon and this one stayed still long enough for me to get a photo! |
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| Arriving in Bath. |
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| A room with a view. |
