Visitor moorings?? Not a lot at Wooton Rivers

Gt Bedwyn to Wootton Rivers, Kennet & Avon Canal, 5 miles 10 locks

It is getting increasingly difficult to get reception for the internet in this remote area on the K&A, I am having to be really patient!  ‘Tis not only this blog, but the pics and location information that has to be put up on ftp to the server.. no worry, if it posts then fine, if not then it will post when it can.  I see last night’s blog posted at gone midnight, so that is on todays!!

I am cross you know.. tis very muddy out here.. British Waterways have left the edges of this canal completely rough.. all mud and reeds it is, and it is making things very uncomfortable with all this rain.  I do hate yukkie ropes!.. But when we arrive at the villages we find that most of the visitor moorings are taken up by British Waterways Winter Moorings.. and narrowboats are moored in the prime positions for the winter months.  I am cross when I think back that BW wanted us continuous cruisers to pay a whopping 2 and a half times higher for our boating licence.. I feel at the moment as we are very lowly and uncared about boaters.  We have to put up with winter in the mud, while BW take the visitor moorings for the mooring of boats.  These boats are not even being lived on.. they are just boats abandoned for the winter months by owners who cruise the system in the summer.  Ah well..

But what more could I ask for than to travel the waterways at this time of year.. for all my moaning about the mud, I have to admit it is all well worth it, more especially when you travel the waterway with the most wonderful autumn colours…

So today roles were reversed and Ann and I locked No Problem and Moore2Life through the locks to the summit level of this canal.. I enjoyed being out on the towpath doing the locks, sometimes it can be quite boring just steering the boat you know.. and it was up through the Crofton Flight to the top, then through the tunnel…

I didn’t mind this one.. I can see the end, but I still needed the lights on.. oh yes nearly forgot.. I have got a feeling that my collie dog Lucy is a bit of a mystery dog.. Lucy runs along the towpath most of the day while we cruise, You can see her getting a drink in the first photo, and I noticed back around Thatcham that she jumped on the boat after a lock, I wondered why, then remembered that the next bridge was a main road and also a turnover bridge, which means that the towpath changes from one side to the other.. I thought it was just a coincidence that she got on the boat herself.  Then she did it again somewhere else.. I began to think that maybe this wasn’t a coincidence, then today I remembered that I had to get her on the boat after the last lock at Crofton because there are no more bridges for her to jump aboard before the tunnel..

“Where is Lucy, she needs to be aboard” I called to Vic as he exited the lock.. “She is onboard”.. I couldn’t believe it!!  How on earth does she remember?  It’s not coincidence she is remembering after 3 years away from this canal.. scarey stuff!

I like Wootton Rivers, a village full of lovely thatched cottages.. we will stay a while and let this stormy weather pass that is due to hit us in the next couple of days before moving on to get some diesel from George at Honey Street