Active weekend, but target of Benham Lock is achieved!

Today – Moored Benham Lock, Kennet & Avon Canal
Sat and Sun – Midgham Lock to Benham Lock, K&A Canal, 7 miles 11 locks

Gosh, I can’t believe how much we have done since I wrote the last blog.. indeed I had to look twice and think a lot!

But we pulled the pins early on Saturday morning to try to reach Benham Lock by evening.. but with people to meet along the way, and a trip to Tesco to stock up it was highly unlikely I suppose.. Vic was locking No Problem though while I relaxed on the tiller.. at Widmead lock I was chatting to a lovely couple, Roger and Pat who were telling me that they have a caravan and had planned on taking that across Europe now that they are both retired from working.  But Pat had a slight stroke in July which has put that on the back burner.. but a lovely day on Saturday saw Pat out on the towpath on the arm of Roger.. recovering well, they are hoping to do that special trip soon… Lovely, lovely people..

There really isn’t much for me to do while locking through you see.. just to make sure No Problem stays safe in the locks really, and try not to bump her too much on the way in and out.. time to relax and chat to passers by, and for sure there were a lot of people ‘gongoozling’ or watching boats over the weekend.. blue skies got everyone out me thinks…

Here No Problem at Midgham Lock, just before we pulled the pins, such a lovely day already and this is at about 8.30am.. plenty of frost on the ground at that time!

Newbury never changes, and I was glad to see that the Boatyard was still in the same hands.. the last time we passed it was up for sale, but the owners decided to keep it on.. I say glad.. well I am really, just I got reminded of my visit there some three years ago.. “I remember you throwing your rubbish on top of our skip instead of putting it in.. I have it all on the cctv you know!”… OK, OK… I got caught for sure, but I couldn’t find out how to open the darn skip to dump the rubbish, so though one just had to lop it in the top.. errrrrrrrr obviously not!!

Anyway… I spy!!!

It was great to meet Mike of NB Globetrotter, and we spent some time chatting.  I have been having trouble getting my head around my new toy.. my PDA trying to get the gps to work.. Thanks Mike!!.. A few buttons pressed here and there and hey presto!!  Mike is lucky to have a lovely mooring on the island in Newbury with a shared broadband… by the way, for those looking for some information about the internet and how to connect, Mikes absolutely excellent page Mobile Internet is a must, it far out does my page.. I really do need to do some updating.. take a look at Mikes in the meantime.. might be good for you too Dot of Gypsie Rover!

Moored up just under the bridge to nip to Tesco and to the library to see if they had any books on this gps stuff, then it was onward to try and clear Newbury.. well Saturday night would be noisy for sure.. Lucy is not overly keen on fireworks.. Made it out of town and settled for the night just short of Guyer’s Lock.. not far to go now.. Sunday the final push.. pulled the pins and Vic and I swapped duties, and I worked No Problem through the final few locks to our target destination.. Yet another beautiful day…

Higgs Lock, and no warning on the Newbury side that the bank has completely fallen away along with the mooring bollards!!.. Moore2Life went aground on the debris.. there is a notice on the top lock beam of the problem below the lock.. huh dated June of this year.. so no maintenance nor were there any warnings on the eastern side to warn boaters of the danger.. wonder if this will be fixed..

So up and through Benham Lock we went, and promptly moored up.. ahead was a long line of boats obviously taking advantage of the stoppage.. I doubt they will move for a month now.. well they have positioned themselves so they can’t turn round and ahead of them is a lock that nobody can get through for a month!.. A walker asked me if there was a rally on as she had never seen so many boats at this particular spot!! .. I explained in a diplomatic way why they were all there

We won’t be here for a month however.. continuous cruisers that we are.. we shall be moving off in a few days to Kintbury and all points westward over the next month or so.. but for now we are taking a welcomed break having reached our destination to be clear of the first of the winter stoppages.. this looking back towards Newbury from the lock, denoting that there are 81 more locks to do before reaching Bristol ..