Autumn on the Kennett and Avon

Normally we have one week a year on the narrow boat, NB never called a barge.  But this year we were lucky to be able to carry over from last year and have two weeks.  

The down side (there's always a down side) was that the only two consecutive weeks we could get were the last two weeks of October. It was rather chilly, well not exactly chilly, it was very cold, especially at night-time.   But, as can be seen in this photo, some days there was weak and watery sunshine, especially early mornings and evenings. These were rather atmospheric, see this photo .

The surprising thing was that, with this weather, some people were going round in coats, hats, scarves and gloves, whilst others wore short and t-shirts.  It was as if no-one couldn't decide what the weather was really like.

small, interesting hill somewhere east of Hilperton

We decided to traverse the Kennet and Avon Canal (http://canalrivertrust.org.uk/canals-and-rivers/kennet-and-avon-canal), starting at Hilperton, nr Trowbridge and travelling as far east as we could, then perhaps travelling west towards Bath/Bristol if there were time:  

Encroaching on the canal, often growing on either side, was a long grass which looked as though it was trying to be grown-up bamboo.  To get this caught in the rudder would've been disastrous.

There was so much autumn colour that it was difficult to remember to concentrate on helping with the locks.



Here is one of the over 160 locks through which we passed (never again - it was far too much like hard work!)  ...  showing one of the more spectacular of the very leaky locks:

Little cottage in a wood ....

colourful virginia creeper

Here are photos of some of the wildlife encountered - also there were ducks, alpacas, chubby lambs,  swans with their cygnets, cows - these bullocks were totally unconcerned at the boats and boaters.  

Many people were walking their (usually very well-behaved) dogs along the tow-path, only one of which had a death-wish of jumping into the muddy, filthy water.  


Interestingly about half the dogs were of a terrier type, a quarter were black labs and a quarter were all other breeds put together.

Fungus time of year

fungi growing in the lock gate - note the lock is empty as the boat is so low.

There was lots and lots of very cold and persistent rain. Days of it!  Unfortunately, when the weather was like that there wasn't much chance to take any photos. It was a case of being soaking wet and keeping going 'til we could tie up for the night, so rather an endurance test.  And the wet and the damp falling leaves meant it was rather slippery.

But we survived it and have learned that never again will we keep going for miles and miles soaking wet.  We were very lucky not to catch a cold or 'flu'.  

There were some rewards for all the hard work:  the warm galley at the end of the day with a lovely meal, the central heating on, a quick drink and our own chocolates (fromhttp://www.hotelchocolat.com/uk/). Here's a pic of the chocs, before we dug into them:

We travelled from Hilperton, up Caen Hill, through Devizes with its excellent market, Crofton which has a pump engine which unfortunately wasn't open when we moored nearby, Pewsey, Little Bedwyn, which has an interesting local shop, Hungerford (lovely shops, esp charity shop near to the canal mooring), Kintbury, Newbury, Thatcham, Aldermaston, then returned to Hilperton (http://www.kennetandavontrust.co.uk/Canal_Map.html).  

Caen Hill from the western end - hard work!

Returning was much faster as many of the locks had to be left empty so traversing up-hill was much quicker than having to fill the lock every time we needed to travel down hill.

Interesting local shop in Bedwyn

We had a free day before the end of the holiday, so motored to Bradford-upon-Avon as had heard from a friend that it's a delightful place.  And so it was.

Bradford-upon-Avon is proud of its Olympic Gold medallist (see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-19224396)

Bradford-upon-Avon is a lovely town with beautiful Bath stone buildings, small interesting shops and an variety of places to eat.  It's the sort of place which I'd like to visit again.

http://www.cotswolds.info/places/bradford-on-avon.shtml and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennet_and_Avon_Canal

Tank trap by one of the bridges

Footnote: On the left is one of the tank traps beside one of the bridges on the Kennet & Avon Canal - important line of defence in WW2 (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GHQ_Line and http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/the-second-world-war-60-years-on-where-we-drew-the-line-1116218.html.)

PInterest

I have joined pinterest: http://pinterest.com/shushab/, so far I've started six boards and posted 40 pins (pictures). - this may become addictive!

Why pinterest is 2012's hottest website: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/06/tech/web/pinterest-website-cashmore/index.html

Narrowboat

When I met David and he said he had a narrow boat time-share - one week a year - I was not impressed. After all, having been in the Royal Navy for 25 years I would at least have expected a Frigate!

Because my father used to be a fisherman, David presumed I was au fait with boats - but apparently not - so the first year or so David had quite a hard time.  This wasn't helped the first year by my being unwell and David cracking a rib, so we were a pair of crocks.

By the second year I was becoming more useful and we started to enjoy ourselves.  It helped that we were travelling the same route as the first year, going out from Evesham in Worcestershire, travelling up the River Avon to Stratford, then up the Stratford Canal, and returning. 

It was wonderful mooring in the centre of Stratford, right next to the Shakespeare memorial, in fact becoming part of the tourist attraction. Boats are permitted to moor there free for up to 48 hours, the only down side being the incredibly difficult lock at the bottom (needing at least four people to man because of old warped gates and the very difficult exit at the top through a blind tunnel) no matter, it was still fun.  

One year we went to the beautiful, authentic Swan Theatre to see Cymbeline (http://www.william-shakespeare.info/shakespeare-play-cymbeline.htm).  Another year it was Ken Dodd on 'The Humour in Shakespeare' - well what we found was that there is very little, but Shakespeare gives us humorous situations - and Ken Dodd certainly did!

The following year we travelled south from Evesham to Tewkesbury, up to Worcester and then down to Gloucester and back. Again it was fun mooring on the River Severn in Worcester and in the actual Docks in Gloucester. 

A tight squeeze - very near Birmingham, the year we did the Birmginham Ring which was hard work (see http://www.canaljunction.com/canal/birmingham_navigations.htm, - a useful site)

One year we travelled north and south from the base at Market Harborough.

Barbara and Vicky, the year that Barbara joined us for half the week - which I think she found quite enough!

Vicky and Steve usually join us for part of the holiday and one year Fi came along too.

This picture shows us near the top of Foxton Locks ( http://foxtonlocks.com/)

Unfortunately we will not be going on the boat this year, so we hope to bank our week and have two weeks next year.