Down the Avenues and Alleyways!..

I have noticed before when I have used the word ‘ginnel’, as I did a couple of blogs ago, that there are comments as to what I have said.. two comments this time which had me looking on google this evening..

From Martin..

When you say ginnel do you mean gitty?

and from Gail Mead..

Surely it's a twitten !

Now that is very interesting.. Of course being from Hampshire I should have said alleyway, but my family on my mother’s side is from Wigan in Lancashire and my grandmother had a house which backed on to a ginnel.. and I fell in love with the word and have used it ever since!

I can guess now where my two commenters come from.. Martin says gitty.. I guess you are from the Midlands Martin, while Gail prefers twitten.  Surely Gail is from Sussex!? 

Bathampton by bus then Dundas by narrowboat..

Bradford-on-Avon to Dundas Aqueduct, 3.5 miles 0 locks, K&A Canal

Bradford-on-Avon Post Office tends to ‘lose’ my mail.. so I chose to collect it at Bathampton this time.  Not quite being there yet and not looking as if we ever will, I jumped on a bus to take me there.. but attitudes there are much the same as at Bradford Post Office.. “Huh, nobody told me mail was coming for you”.. Gawd here we go again.. “But I phoned a few days ago to say”..

Why on earth customers of Royal Mail have to put up with this I do not know.  They don’t know their jobs around here for sure. 

“Well yes we have your mail”… Good I thought.. but didn’t expect “But we don’t keep it in the post office, there isn’t enough room, we keep it behind the counter in the shop”.. “Eh??” “That is not very safe is it?” I retorted.

I got my mail, but have to go back again for one more bit.. I hope they didn’t withold it I will really complain..

It’s been one of those weeks.. but then I am used to that round here.. last week I needed a doc, no chance, this week Vic needs a blood test.. Managed to get him an appointment at the Docs by saying we were staying for 2 weeks.  Doc wrote it all up, the forms, the I.T. on the computer, and the actual form for the blood test.. but no blood test.. “Go see the receptionist and she will book one”.. OK, so then “2 weeks time is the earliest we can do”…”What???!!!” “Oh and then it will be 10 days before the results are back”.. “But my husband could be dead by then!”.. “Sorry best we can do”

“You could go to Bath”, says she, but we have to be there by 9am via 2 buses and then wait an hour or so to get a blood test.. I left the surgery in disgust at the NHS.

A phone call to my village surgery in Hampshire where our own Doctor practices.. “Yes can do one anytime day next week..” etc etc.. Sheesh, so I will take hubby to Hampshire and get it done ‘dan saff’.  It’s only a two hour trip and will cost about £18.. a trip to Bath Hospital and the wait will take longer and will actually cost more!!

Enough, enough!!

Pulling the pins this afternoon was a real pleasure.. for a couple of reasons.. one is the hassle of the above and the other is because we were going to spend the weekend at Dundas Aqueduct.  I love it.  The short 3 miles or so is a delight firstly over the Avoncliffe Aqueduct.. here the right turn to cross it..

Then through the lovely wooded areas with steep rock and woodland on one side of the canal and on the other the River Avon far below the embankment.. perhaps one of the nicest areas in the country, very peaceful indeed, and much needed today I’ll tell you!

This is a bit of a magic place to live.. it is very remote, and I suppose if I didn’t live on No Problem, then perhaps this is the place I would choose to live…

Mr Bean (AKA Rowan Atkinson) also lives around here somewhere high on the hill to the right.. I would love to go meet him.  I am one of the many who think Mr Bean is just such a funny character.. Wendie my daughter does not.. well it’s not often we beg to differ!

I also love the rail station here.. it is a request stop!  If you want to get off there you have to tell the guard who informs the driver.. if you want to get on, you hold your hand out like you would for a bus!  There is also a phone you can lift to find out the times of the next train.. all very civil if you ask me!

So we have settled tonight at Dundas.. Not busy on the mooring here surprisingly.. there is one boat on the 24 hour mooring and we have chosen the 72hr mooring a little further from the aqueduct.. but that won’t stop me walking back for the fabulous views and of course a visit to the Somerset Coal Canal, in water for a hundred yards or so with a nice canal centre at the end.. good weekend no doubt we will have.

Bradford-on-Avon.. better moorings now

Moored Bradford-on-Avon

I simply hate mooring by those flats.  There are rocks in the water and NP keeps on bumping up against them.  Also you can’t get in close to the bank so it is out with the long plank, but there was nowhere else to moor when we arrived a couple of days ago, it is so busy here.

Today though we are moored outside the tithe barn, this is so much better, I love being up this end of the town….

I got a wonderful zoomed in picture of the barn from the top of the hill in Bradford-on-Avon today.. there are wonderful views from up there and lots of ginnels to investigate.  If ever you pass through this town it is well worth walking up the hill from Church Street by the river, just keep on climbing up till you reach the little chapel.  Here the barn and other buildings look like a miniature village..

My legs are tired tonight though walking all that way.. still not recovered yet from that awful virus me thinks.. Oh and met Tony and Pat on the towpath the other day.. having said that, I had totally forgotten their names, my apologies to you both.. later I recalled we had a really nice day at Great Bedwin a few months ago when we chatted over a cupper aboard.  They were pleased to see Lucy so much better.. she was definitely on 3 legs and feeling quite sorry for herself at Gt Bedwin.

NP2 is coming along well in the paint shop at Devizes Marina, had a phone call from Jamie today just checking out once again my colour choices.. “Ah she is looking good, got lots of coats of gloss on now” says he.. I must admit he sure does enjoy his job there.. and takes pride in his painting.  Only young yet is Jamie, but for sure he is enthusiastic .. a great asset to Richard Poole’s team there.

Dundas tomorrow I think as long as the weather holds up.. mind, it is is a bit on the chilly side tonight… fire is stoked up..

Party time then the moorings are full up again!

It was party time ‘dan saff’ over the weekend, and Vic and I took the train down to Portsmouth for Vic’s daughter Louise’s 40th birthday party.. “It’s going to be a bbq on the beech” says Louise.. Yeah yeah yeah I thought until we got there and then I realise that the location of the house was, in fact, right on the beach.. the water comes up to the wall at high tide, but it was out… good timing Louise!

So there was a huge bon fire, and plenty of food on the bbq cooked by Louise’s brother who just happens to be a chef at one of the big golf clubs in the area.. yummy yum, so much for the diet this weekend I’ll tell you.  We had a great time and really enjoyed.. thanks Lou!  .

It was also Happy Birthday time to my Auntie Doe who lives in Winchester, well near to anyway.. so happy birthday to you too Dozzy Doe!!..

The bus fare from Semington to Trowbridge was £4.80 for a single ticket.. yet a single train fare from Trowbridge to Portsmouth was £4.50…. its a crazy world sometimes!

It was also nice to spend some time with the grandchildren over the weekend, and I sorted with Kiera and Jessica some time to come see me over the summer holidays.  It will be the first time that Jessica has been away with me on her own, so maybe a couple of days to start with I think… I don’t want her to be homesick..

Yesterday we pulled the pins on Semington after waiting for a Tesco deliver and a visit to the Post Office. It was nice there…

I was going to catch the bus to Melksham, but the weather was absolutely glorious so took a walk instead over the fields to Bowerhill to get to the Post Office there.. cruising along in shirt sleeves, it wasn’t long till we were back again at Bradford on Avon.. no chance on the visitor moorings, the 24hour ones are still taken up with the same boats that were here the last time we visited, so we are moored against a rough old bank.. email to BW me thinks about that!

Need to see a Doctor somewhere on the Canals?

Still A’pottering the K & A Canal

I didn’t reply to this comment the other day because it was such an interesting comment from Tracy. I am sure a lot of people read the comment and maybe had concerns.  I thought I would just write a bit about it..

I was interested to read about how difficult it was for you to get a doctors appointment as a visitor in a village.
We head off on our boating travels on 1st April for 6 months and my mother needs Parkinson medication and our doctors will only give one months supply thereafter you have to find doctors on your travels to get repeat prescriptions. It is looking abit of a worry if you cannot prebook appointments especially if visitor moorings are only for 48hrs. Thanks for the pre warning we will now have to prepare early & in 14 day moorings incase we cannot get appointments or the chemist does not stock the drugs. The way you are spoken to at the home doctors makes you think that your mother is a medicine junkie ahhhh it makes you mad!
Regards
Tracy

Well Tracy, I might have given the wrong picture on my blog about the difficulties I had getting a Doctor to see me in Bradford.  To be honest I have never ever had a problem with Doctors while living on the canals for the last 3–4 years.  Having said that, I very rarely visit the Doctors, as you know I don’t often ‘do’ being ill, I don’t seem to have time for that!  I did not force the issue in Bradford.. just I wasn’t offered a Doctor when I could have done with one, most surgeries do in the same situation.

It is most important that you are registered with one Doctor maybe where you live or where friends/relatives live as a ‘base’ Doctor who holds all your records.  You may have to visit for an assessment (as that surgery demands) every 6 months or even every year. Vic and I have assessments just once a year at Xmas time.  when we are ‘dan saff’ for the break.  Vic gets his check ups along with flu jabs etc at that time.

What must be remembered is that everyone has a right to see a Doctor on demand.  So you can walk into a Doctors surgery and get an appointment if absolutely necessary.  What happens is that you register as a temporary patient, and get seen by a Doctor who will contact your own Doctor for information if needed. If an emergency then walk into a hospital casualty department.  I went to a NHS Walk in Centre where you can see a nurse without appointment who can, if you are ill enough send you to a Doctor.  You can also phone NHS Direct Clicking on those links will give you a ton of information.

For example, Vic was pretty poorly about this time last year in Banbury, and had to have some specialist treatment. I phoned for an appointment and we were given one for that afternoon.  The Doctor looked at Vic and asked us to come back in the evening because he wanted to phone our own Doctor for more information.  From there it was a hospital appointment at a hospital of our choice.. we could have chosen Oxford, Cambridge or anywhere else.. knowing how long the waiting lists were we could plan around that on our travels and choose.

Tracy mentions repeat prescriptions.. Tracy those you would get from your own Doctor.  In your case Tracy, I would discuss with your Doctor the possibility of having 3 months worth at a time, telling him why. 

There are a couple of ways of getting those.. You can either send the repeat prescription to the Doctors and ask them to send the prescription to a Poste Restante Post Office address, sending them a stamped addressed envelope, then go to the chemist and collect.  Or ask your family to collect for you and forward the bits of paper for you to get at a chemist.. they could even collect the prescription for you if you are very rural and need it.  Always check with the chemist that they have the complete prescription before asking them to dispense it, otherwise you will have to go back, and like you say if you are on visitor moorings you may not have time to wait for a few days.

While I am on this sort of subject, it is important too that you remain on the electoral roll/bank accounts at a ‘permanent’ address while you are away even if it is a family address or not.  Do get whoever is doing that for you to check that it will not effect their household insurance to have you on the roll at that property though.

I am happy to answer any comments anybody may have on this issue, there is a lot to cover on this subject I may not have covered it completely.  

Just a quickie....

Pottering around Seend

It’s all Annie’s fault… having been chatting this evening, she has just left to go back to Moore2Life, leaving me no time to blog!!

I have to show you this pic.. here is what CAN happen when you wake in the morning..

In the distance, a narrowboat losing it’s front mooring rope and pin overnight and finding itself across the canal.. I wondered if the occupants knew of the dilemma!!

Evidentially not, because we later pulled this one in as we went a-pottering for a couple of miles and needed to pass it… nobody aboard, but there was an overstay notice on it… .. mind, there are lots of those on this canal.

Paul Balmer came over today to kindly give us a lift to Devizes Marina to finalise the top colours for NP2.. and here she is in the paint shop, and I only just have time this evening to put this series of pics on the blog.. I know the family want to see these.  So here we go, one after the other…

Ooops one of those pics might have given away ONE of the colours!

We are over the moon with the quality of paint job so far… from the beginning it has been sand blasted back to metal, then two coats of primer followed by 3 coats of undercoat.. and as you can see it has come up extremely smooth.  I can see that it is a quality boat now.. hire boat or no, it sure is well built, something we didn't see underneath the old paint and rust.. we are chuffed to bits with it..

Pottering around Seend, and don't I love that!!

Pottering on the K&A

Not been doing much really, just trying to rest and beat off this virus, and at last I can report that I think it has gone.  I got a feeling I have had this since January when I came back from visiting ‘dan saff’!

So, time to catch up on computer stuff and all things sat down to do.. nice filing system I have now instead of my normal filing system which was ‘shove it under the dinette cushion and do it some other time’ system!

Look at these two…

Vic has been a right ‘ol softie with these two, he doesn’t even mind if they perch on the roof either.. every lunchtime they come and knock on the window “any leftovers?”… Lucy is funny, she doesn’t like them having leftovers.. SHE likes those and has not appreciated the taps on the glass.. and any opportunity she has had outside she has kept the ducks well away!

Not only ducks, but it was nice the other day to see a heron, happy to sit awhile with No Problem passing, quite unusual…

Oh and plenty of kingfishers on this stretch around Seend.. more than I have seen in a long while.

The mowers were out today along the towpath, and the light didn’t fade ‘till gone 7 tonight.  We were going to go out for a pint last night.. Over the road at the Barge Inn, Seend Cleeve..

But brrrrrrrr it was freezing cold when I stuck my head out around 9pm, so thought better of it and opened the bar on NP.  The weather has been most odd the last couple of days.. so windy that narrowboats have been swept into the bushes, then calm with no ripples on the water.. warm days.. cold days.. but the buds are on the willows.. the moorhens have eggs in their waterside nests.. spring is just around the corner.

We are enjoying some prime time at the moment watching the seasons change right in front of us.. the last couple of days just pottering.. moving just a tad.. well we have to run the engine to charge the batteries, so why not turn the prop and the windlass too for an hour or so..

Brrrrrrr it's a bit chilly at Semington and coal is needed

Weekend – Bradford-on-Avon to Semington, 4.5 miles 0 locks

On Saturday we decided to turn at Bradford and come back to Semington.  It was busy in Bradford and we didn’t have the best of moorings.. kept banging on some underground rocks.. there is nothing so annoying as that.  It’s a bit like chinese torture, you are just waiting for the next bang.  Fenders don’t help in cases like that nor do rubber wheels set sideways and floating.. in fact I have yet to find something to stop that.

Still there are more miserable people in Bradford-on-Avon to contend with… “Hello, we could do with a few bags of coal” says I to a coal merchant close to the canal.. “Yes, what is the address?”  “Oh we live on a narrowboat I can give you a post code to exactly where we will be and we will come and collect it”… “Sorry we don’t deliver to canal boats, goodbye”..  Gawd, I didn’t even get time to ask why not before she put the phone down on me.. not nice at all L.H. Arlott of Holt, Trowbridge. 

So another phone call this time to the coal merchant in Devizes.. I was ever hopeful that they might deliver.. “Hello it’s Sue, can you deliver us some coal around the Semington area?”  “Yes sure, No Problem” (Teehee!) “Semington Bridge OK?” says she ….. “Perfect” says I, and we have the usual giggle between us as to the name of the boat!.. well done Frank Chivers & Son of Devizes.

I am feeling better today.. on the mend now thank goodness, but I am not in a rush to get back to fitness.  I do realise that I am going to have to take it steady for the next week or so, and out walking today for the first time at half speed I managed a couple of miles plus a trip into Melksham for some bread milk and fresh veg.. that was enough too, and was pretty tired when I got back.

I have been doing feet up time for most of the weekend apart from that.. Vic has been looking after me not allowing me to move around much, and he certainly wouldn’t let me do anything at all!.. I enjoyed the F1 very much, hey we got a good youngster in that by the look of it.. but the rugby was annoying, England can do a lot better than that.. thought they were pathetic actually!

But hey, I would like to say a huge thankyou to everyone who has wished me well over the weekend, I have enjoyed all your comments and emails, they have been really lovely..

Enjoyable day in Bath...

Moored Bradford-on-Avon, K&A Canal

Very briefly tonight.. A virus of a type was diagnosed, so they want me to do plenty of rest for the next 4 or 5 days, no walking the dog, no doing locks and making any effort to do anything, complete rest…

Who ME????

But I don’t ‘do’ being ill!

This is going to be very difficult..

Enjoyed Bath today though.. lunch out and a browse around the shops.  It’s a lovely town just like all the pictures of it with it’s semi circle fine housing and beautiful buildings, and the river is magic…

Have a good weekend all.. seems I have to put my feet up for most of it.. still there is the rugby to watch if I get bored!!

Unfriendly Bradford-on-Avon again.. But NP makes the front page!

Lowes Swing Bridge (157) to Bradford-on-Avon, K&A Canal 6 miles 2 locks

Last time we were here the lady in the Post Office annoyingly managed to ‘lose’ our mail for days and days.  After complaining bitterly it suddenly turned up on a shelf..

Today I needed to see the doc so I phoned ahead to Bradford-on-Avon.  I have been a bit under the weather of late you see, and realise that my immune system perhaps needs some antibiotics to ward off the nasties so I can enjoy walking again instead of having aching limbs as soon as I try to do anything..

“No sorry we have no appointments available for visitors or temporary patients today” “How about tomorrow then?” “Nope temporary patients can only book an appointment on the day, not future days.  You could try tomorrow but we have doctors off sick at the moment so I doubt whether there will be any appointments”.. another surgery “No sorry we have no appointments for visitors or temporary patients until the end of next week”…. jeeeeeezzzzz I only want to see a doc.. then “Go to a NHS Walk in Centre”.. “But I live on a narrowboat, where is there one of those?”… “Errr don’t know try Bristol..goodbye”

Really annoying… so I am off to the NHS dropout Walk in Centre in Bath tomorrow to see a nurse.. I don’t know if she is able to help, but I have to start somewhere!

We pulled the pins this morning on a day not as good as yesterday but it was still warm and enjoyable, and crossed the aqueduct at Semington…

See what I mean about the dual carriageway?.. then down the two locks to Semington Bridge where the Wilts and Berks Canal used to leave the K&A on it’s way to Abingdon on the Thames.. there is hope that one day this abandoned canal might be restored.. all that is left this end is this….

And at the other end on the Thames is this….

This is Abingdon.. all that needs to be done is the 52 miles in the middle to join the two up!

We popped into Hilperton Marina to fill with diesel, it is 57p a litre, making it a tad cheaper than Devizes, and here we had quite a surprise.. the recent issue of Towpath Talk was on the shelf and there right on the front page was No Problem!….

No Problem has never been featured in a mag before let alone on the front page.. dead chuffed we are.. if you see one on your travels, No Problem is the third boat in on the left, and you can just about see me standing on the back.  I was waiting there for 12 noon when everyone sounded their horns making as much noise as possible across the wharf at Devizes during the protest to the Defra cuts earlier in March.  Next to us is Moore2Life, and there are the two boats supporting the big banner!

I have just noticed something in that photo, my tablecloth is the wrong way round.. I usually have the pattern facing the other way!.. I bet Vic changed it!! It will get changed back in the morning!

I read in the Towpath Telegraph this evening that British Waterways has made a dam at Kate Bush’s broken mill weir so that they can re-open the canal again on 16^th March.. well that is good news.. the bad news for BW is that to actually fix this weir the estimate is now £250,000… a far cry from the £100,000 it first thought.  This weir collapsed during flood conditions and it was only because Kate Bush looked into history that it was discovered that BW’s responsibility for it dates back to 1834 when the canal company which owned the K&A canal at that time sold off the land to the mill owner, but retained responsibility for the weir.. Now BW have to pick up the tab on that one..

It will help to get boats moving a bit.. but I noticed that there are many Thames locks showing as a later re-opening (March 30th I think) than the winter stoppage programs showed.. I suppose that is due to the bad weather conditions and flooding.. so it is going to be a bit of a struggle getting out of here.. Mind you we still have a bit more refitting to do on NP2 to keep us busy as we trickle back to Reading in a couple of weeks time..

We sit out in spring while BW face £100,000 fine for breaches of safety

Moored Nr Lowes Swing Bridge (157), K&A Canal

Well we just happen to be close to the village where one of the two farmers came from who where killed back in December 2004 when their tractor fell into the K&A while trimming the hedges at Pewsey. Here is where we are moored this evening with Seend Cleeve in the background, the home village of Mark Wells who died in the tragedy along with his son Luke from Melksham.

 A hefty fine for British Waterways of £100,000 for breaches of safety.

Still the condition of those towpaths are dreadful.. in fact from the top of the Caen Hill flight of locks for most of the length to Reading they are really bad.  From this side of Caen Hill they are great, with the towpath being made up for very fast speeding bikes, runners, walkers and loads of disabled electric motorised whatevers.. it has been great to see those out, but maybe not so the speeding bikes some doing in excess of 10–15 mph.  This causes a problem with the dogs and trying to get them and me out of the way in time.

Most of the fast cyclists are not very patient, some even shouting to get out of the way as they speed along.. they don’t have any bells or give any warning that they are coming, and consequently when walking I am forever looking around for them.  Mind you I have trained Lucy to lie down flat off the towpath when she sees one coming, and more often than not she has warned me of one behind before I have noticed…

This morning a leisurely walk to Semington Bridge across the aqueduct.  The last time we were at the aqueduct at Semington it was still being built, and the road was only in the construction stage.  Today I was amazed at the ‘dual carriageway’ for the boats and a single carriageway for the cars underneath!!.. Pics of that tomorrow when we cruise to Bradford on Avon..

Back for lunch out on the towpath!

Yes plenty warm enough to get the chairs out of the cupboard, and get them far enough back out of the way of the cyclists and the like.. even then the majority didn’t slow down!!.. Bit nerve racking that, but hey we are towpath users too!

But an enjoyable day out in the warm sunshine.. tomorrow I do hope the weather is the same as we travel on ….

Spring around Seend is a delight

Sells Green to Nr Lowes Swing Bridge (157), K&A Canal, 1.5 miles 5 locks

Aww it makes the winter months so worthwhile when a day appears like today.  Warm sunshine brought smiles to everyone.. lots of hellos and chat along the cut as we went just a short way through the locks at Seend..

The weeping willow in leaf as Ann of NB Moore2Life and Vic close the gates behind No Problem.  We stopped for lunch opposite the Barge Inn at Seend and put on water and ‘did’ the loos afterwards.. then onwards to a beautiful mooring close to a swing bridge.

I am enjoying our break from the fitout of NP2 very much and especially so in this lovely spring weather.. We heard today that NP2 is in fact in the paint shop now having been totally sand blasted, bits and pieces filled where necessary and now ready for her undercoats..

Not a lengthy walk late this afternoon.. I had some washing to catch up on, but very enjoyable.  I think we will stay here tomorrow for the day.. its gorgous here.

Old Age Travellers around Sells Green and Melksham

Moored Sells Green, K&A Canal

I have never been to Melksham.  I have been to many of the towns around here like Calne and Chippenham, but never Melksham, so today we took the 12 minute bus ride from Sells Green into the town.  It is always nice to nip on a bus and go see some of what is around wherever you moor sometimes.. we enjoyed on a lovely day and had our first look at the Avon as it sped under the bridge at the bottom end of town.  Of course we have no idea whether it is high or not.. not knowing the norm you see, for this area..

We have been moored here for the weekend, and both of those days were nice too, in fact when Ann and I took the dogs out on Sunday we persuaded the guys to come along, and hey why not a picnic as well! And how about we do a cache too while we are at it.. mind you I had to solve the clues on Saturday night first….

Armed with the new co-ordinates we set off towards Seend.. I stopped the search party close to where I though the cache was, and hey presto Vic found it!!.. here the boys showing off the box of goodies with our narrowboats moored in the valley below..

Loads of these ‘treasures’ are hidden all over England in boxes or other containers full of goodies and a log book to log your visit.. you can also log your visit online just as you see we have done under the name of the_narrowboaters.. well an obvious name for us don’t you think?!

A little further on we came to a few folk having a chat.. obviously meeting on the path.. they did not let us get further up the hill out of earshot though when I heard…. “Ah not new age travellers, more like old age travellers”…. teehee… not only are we water gypsies, but also old age errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr travellers now!!!.. It must be the scarf that Lucy wears me thinks ..… or perhaps something else.. it can’t surely be anything to do with my age!!!

The church at Seend is splendid..

The views from the other side of it are too, and after our lunch picnic a little further on, the four of us walked back to the boats..

Oh yes, these are a couple of pics I took over the weekend might make you smile somewhat, I will leave you with these then this evening….

And from Melksham today…

Teehee!

The Sells Green carp does it again!!

Marsh Lane Bridge (144) to Sells Green, K&A Canal. 1.5 miles 7 locks

So thats the Caen Hill Flight down completed.  We decided to get away a bit earlier than normal this morning to beat the heavy showers that were forecasted the day before.. this morning there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, although the wind kept it a tad cooler than yesterday.

Ann and Vic worked No Problem and Moore2Life through the locks, such a lazy life I have on the back of No Problem.. but Vic would rather work the locks than steer No Problem in and out of the locks, especially on windy days! He is happier to shout at me for knocking the odd lock wall I think than for me to do the same to him!!

Wasn’t long ‘till we reached the bottom lock and Foxhangers Boat Yard…

Here the hire boats all newly painted three abreast waiting for their new season to start in a couple of weeks time.  These boats looked really neat and tidy.. I guess they won’t look quite like this come the back end of September this year..

Onward then, and soon we passed one I recognised by name .. owned by a reader of this blog I believe?? ..

I was interested to note the very long mooring rope at the back.. apparently the levels change quite drastically along this stretch of the canal.. in fact where we are moored at the moment at Sells Green does much the same.. I forgot about that although I did make a note of it in my Nicholson Guide.. Glad I saw this pic as I put it on the server.. I will loosen the ropes when I let Lucy out in about an hours time.

This afternoon I got the rod out and stuck it over the side hoping to temp a carp that I caught here three years ago.. well the one that got away I mean.. Blow me my line zoomed under and a big weighty fish was on the other end.. but alas he done it again.. one day, one day I will nab him!!

The footpaths around here are brilliant, just like in the pics above.. this is very much better than the quagmire towpaths west of Devizes and it was a real pleasure to take Lucy out this evening.. she loved it too, new places to walk at last.  We wandered off the towpath into the fields and she was in her element.. I was definitely not as fit as in the summer though.. I need more exercise I think.. We arrived back after 6pm.. still plenty of light.. at last the evenings are drawing out, Spring is sure on the way..

Down the wonderful Caen Hill Flight of Locks

Devizes Prison Bridge to March Lane Bridge (144), K&A Canal, 1.25 miles 19 locks

We met the first of the newly geared paddle winding gear, and for sure it was easier to turn, but a hell of a lot of turns to get them up and down…

Here Vic shakes his wrist after winding up this paddle!

It was great to meet up with Paul Balmer of Waterway Routes again who arrived with his windlass just as No Problem and Moore2Life pulled the pins this morning.. absolutely perfect timing.. and Lucy remembered Paul well giving him a huge welcome at the side of the first lock of the day.  Paul was delighted at the improvement in Lucy saying she was much more alert and bouncy as well as looking much better weight wise.  Paul was really pleased to see her happily running up the towpath on 4 legs .. “You would never know she had an accident at all now” he noted.

Just the three locks to do till we got to the top of the ‘flight proper’ as I call it.. and like a slide the locks spread out in front of us down the hill and into the valley below..

We were aiming for that white blob below, that is where the last lock in this flight of 16 is situated.  As you can see a beautiful day too.  We were very lucky.. a few pics this evening then of our trip down…

These are the huge side pounds to the right between each of the locks.  They are more like lakes and are extremely deep.  Plenty deep enough for a narrowboat to turn in there me thinks.. and here the distance between each of the locks..

This flight is almost precision engineering.. Chas and I lining up together to come out of one and into another side by side in a dead straight line apart I think for a couple of locks which were a couple of feet out of line.  But if you look carefully you will see Paul steering No Problem at this lock.. nervous though he was, he enjoyed sharing a couple of locks and taking No Problem down with Moore2Life.. it wasn’t long though before he was doing what he enjoys best.. locking and taking in the views!

We stopped for a cuppa about half way down.. the only place to stop is in the lock though, but there was nobody about today, and we had no boats behind or in front, nor were there any coming up the flight.. in fact we had the place all to ourselves!

Plenty of gongoozlers though, and some even gave a hand winding paddles up and down while other enjoyed taking pics of the boats.. after 3 very leisurely hours we emerged at the bottom..

I will always call this ‘The Awesome Flight’.  It is majestic and one of the wonders of the waterways especially on a day like today.. and we didn’t even share it with anyone.. we had just tied up to have lunch when the lock keeper came down on his quad bike and locked it up for another day..

We walked back up the flight to the car park with Paul in the afternoon.  I wondered whether we would see him again by car.. his new boat is due for completion in a few weeks time, and I am looking forward to visiting him for a change!

Thanks for today Paul, and good luck with the launch of new boat

Here we go, here we go, here we go.. tra-la

Devizes Marina to Prison Bridge, Devizes, K&A Canal, 1 mile 3 locks

WOW at last on the move.  It sure did feel good after being so long just trickling up and down between Devizes, the Marina and the turning point.

Couple of bits and bobs to pick up in Devizes as we passed through the main town including some wigglies to put on the end of my line for later.. I won’t forget that three years ago I caught a carp at Sells Green.. had no landing net then, and when Vic put a big black bucket in the water to catch it, the poor ‘ol fish took off in fright and nearly took me with it!  I know exactly where that carp lives though, and I am determined to pay him a visit with a bit of bread or something tastier again this year!

So here we all are tackling our first lock for over 3 months.  The top lock in Devizes…

It was a beautiful day today, the sun was warm as we dropped down just three locks to tie up opposite the Black Horse pub.. this is Prison Bridge.  There seems to be no prison here anywhere, but I suppose a look on google will tell me that there used to be!

Yes for sure, here we go, a rather interesting website about ghosts in Devizes mentions the prison..

Location: Devizes, Lower Wharf

Part of the old Devizes prison a man or evil energy still haunts a remaining cell; a crucifix is kept in the wall and should never be removed.

I won’t be too worried about that this evening though!

I had to pick up some post today from Seend, a village some 5 miles or so up the road from Devizes.. well Devizes Post Office had got a bit ‘jobsworth’ you see, “Ah sorry, but we can only keep your poste restante mail for 2 months in any one year, you will have to find another post office”.. darn it.. 

So I arranged to have it sent to Seend.  I knew I could catch the bus from Prison Bridge here that would take me to Seend.. but low and behold when I went to catch the bus just after lunch I had to hide my smiling face from those around me because just across the road from the bus stop was a bloomin’ Post Office!!

Well I never found that on the internet, and usually I am a good ferret for finding stuff that I need! Ah well, no worry, I got the post and sat on the wall for half hour waiting for the bus to return from Trowbridge to take me back… to the bus stop outside the Post Office!!

No mud, and lovely paths to walk on around here, so it wasn’t long till I took off down the towpath with Lucy.  All the way to the bottom of the Caen Hill flight.  I still find it an awesome place to be, and looking up from the bottom is one of the most wonderful canal sights you will ever see.  This is my favourite flight of locks, and I can’t wait to get stuck in tomorrow morning… and the weather is going to be great too!

A great weekend then we say bye bye to NP2 for a while

Moored Devizes, K&A Canal

We had a great weekend down at Devizes Wharf, and were pleased that the main protest day was on the Saturday and not Sunday which made hardy boaters even more hardy at other protests that were held on that day throughout the country.. Good ‘ol Mo and Ness just about made a protest all of their own at Leicester, the only boat there as no others could get up or down the river.. the walking protesters and the BBC making Balmahahahaha the base of protest!  Well done you two!!

At Devizes we purchased tickets for the grand supper and supporting band for the organized event in the community hall during Saturday evening at the Devizes Boat Club.  The supporting band was Meet on the Ledge an odd name for a band I thought, but the Fairport Convention song of the same name must be an influence for them, and it was.  A very entertaining band of two good guitarists and a violin made for some fine music with some Irish jigs thrown in.

Not only did they have a halftime break, but also a moon break!!  Everyone went outside to view the eclipse, what a wonderful sight that was.. I am sure most would have seen it.  We arrived back on NP just before midnight!

Sunday was atrocious as per the weather forecasters and we hurried across back to where we had left off last night for a hearty breakfast before sounding out horn loudly as we untied NP from the other boats and made our way back to the Marina to relax in the afternoon. 

We took the curtains down in NP2 ready for her to be sand blasted today and to finally cover up as much as we could of the interior workings of the last two months.

Today we said goodbye to her for a couple of weeks or so.. here she is waiting for the sand blasting to start.. note she doesn’t quite fit into the wet dock her stern poking outside!

They have boarded and covered the front doors and windows prior to the sand blasting. 

We were just about to leave in NP1 when we met John and Fiona who had just arrived back on Epiphany from a trip to Wooton Rivers calling in at the protest at Pewsey on the way back. John and Fiona moor in this marina but we had never met them, and we chatted a while on the quay before having a ‘walk through’ on the beautifully built narrowboat from Bath Narrowboats, mainly designed by John himself.

We decided then to have lunch and just as we pulled the pins we could hear the sandblaster at work on the old paintwork of NP2.. well she will be a different colour when we get back in a couple of weeks time.  So we are off then to the west for a well deserved rest from all the fitting out so far.  Caen Hill here we come.. in a couple of days time we will be in Sells Green.  Lucy will love the change of scenery as will we both too.  It is 10 weeks that we have been here in and around Devizes area I think.. shhhhhhh don’t tell the lengthsman

First Pics of the Devizes Protest

It’s very busy here with lots of people attending the protest.  There have been a number of speaches and the local Member of Parliament has vowed to do all he can to stop the Defra cuts.  He informed us that the EU have fined Defra over £300 million for mismanagement.. jeeeeeeez what a waste of money that is.. so here are some early pics then..

There is plenty of entertainment going on too, and lots of walkers, cyclists and canoeists..(is that how you spell that?!) joining in.  I have already tucked into a lovely burger in a bun and a pint of good beer!

Tonight there is music and a buffet I think and tomorrow breakfast will be available.. should be a good weekend.. more boats are turning up now and the canal is blocked completely.. and it will stay that way I think until tomorrow

We plan next week and the Save our Waterways Protest at Devizes

Moored Nr Devizes, K&A Canal

Well we have come to the end February and now into March we are going to give ourselves a well earned rest from the re-fitting out of NP2. On Monday she will go into Devizes Marina to be repainted before we continue into the Spring, hopefully moving aboard as we will then make our way back along the Kennet & Avon Canal towards Newbury.

So this evening’s blog is a bit about what is happening in the near future more than the past.  To be honest during the time that my computer has been broken each day has really just been taken up with walking Lucy.. she is super-fine by the way .. trips to Devizes, Focus and Jewsons for bits and bobs and generally getting dreadfully muddy and wet in between doing my bit on the re-fit!

We will be moving down the Caen Hill Flight of Locks on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday of next week leaving NP2 here in Devizes .. Here we are at the bottom of the flight in January 2004 curtisy of Ron’s (AKA Foul_old_Ron) camera..

If anyone would like to join us doing locks or having a go at steering NP1 down through a few then you would be more than welcome.  It might be wet and windy though, next week’s weather forecast is not that good.. Then on to Seend, Dundas and Bradford.. don’t think we will go much further.. I found Bathampton too full of boats to be able to moor when we were on this canal three years ago.. I am guessing it will be worse now, but for sure we will be relaxing and it will be a treat not to head my blogs “Moored Nr Devizes” etc!!

But before that we are off to the Save our Waterways protest at Devizes Wharf tomorrow morning.. We joined in the one at Pewsey last November..

But we are only taking NP1 though because the weather forecast is attrocious for Sunday, blowing a gale and pouring rain, and I really don’t fancy trying to turn the 67ft of NP2 at the wharf with all those boats in the way.. could lead to me crashing into one or two of them.. don’t want to do that..

So there will be plenty to blog about hopefully throughout March, NP2 will be sandblasted completely back to the metal, windows out and rubbed down and any areas filled and made good before starting on the undercoats.. a couple of them before the first of the three colours to lay on.. heh.. blue eh? teehee.. maybe, maybe not! 

Furbs, burgundy is a lovely colour but it does tend to fade, that is one reason why we have gone away from that.. plus we would like to ‘steer’ away from the Black Prince colours now that she is in private hands.  The only colour we are unsure about at the moment is the colour of the roof!  We shall have to make a decision by Monday though.. ho hum do we paint it cream to keep cool in the summer or paint it in the main colour(s)!?

NP2 is coming together quite nicely at Devizes

Moored Devizes, K & A Canal

I see it has been some time since I have done a blog.. I can’t believe it has been 20 days!  My computer started to really play up during January, and it seemed like the socket that took the power lead had become faulty.. so I phoned a place here in Devizes and arranged to go to their workshop to have it fixed.  When I got there the workshop was locked up.. and on enquiring from a neighbouring workshop they said “Oh they are never here… they just travel around”.. charming I am sure .. and I had a long walk back to Devizes as the next bus would be over an hour to have to wait .. anyway to cut a long story short, “Snip” I contacted Acer who said they would do the repair under warranty as I had had a previous ‘gripe’!!

Blar-de-bla-de-blar, anyway…………………. seems the motherboard is up the shoot, so I am getting a new one, but they don’t have any in stock… odd that eh???!! .  A bloomin’  great repair place at Plymouth and they have no motherboards! .. for those not in the know, that is the main thing that makes a computer actually work! That was over two weeks ago.. I am waiting for a promised email on the estimated e.t.a of my computer back to me.. errrrrr and still waiting!

Soooooooooo.. that is why I have been offline

So today then this happened……

See, nothing changes, we are still at it!  This was great fun putting in this pull-out-corner unit, we had such a laugh.. but we have not been rushing doing stuff, it all takes time.  A lot has been happening anyway over the last couple of weeks .. I have been ‘dan saff’ a couple of times.. once early in the month for a meeting then in the middle of the month I was delighted to join my father and daughters at our family business to celebrate 80 years…

That’s four generations.. my grandfather started the business back in 1927.. here the girls sitting on one of the counters from all those years ago.. and here is another pic..

If anyone lives in the South, you might have seen it on TV, there was a special feature on South Today, and everyone was very nervous at being interviewed, but it went well, and the day was very busy with lots of friends and customers popping in as well as ‘reps’ some retired now.  A great day that was!

Wendie and the family were here last weekend bringing up one or two bits that we had ordered.. such is the logistics of trying to do all these changes.. here you can see how difficult it is trying to do a fit out on the cut..

This is our new stove being checked out at Horton Chain Bridge.. a very muddy slope to bring it down it was, so a bit hairy.  NP2 didn’t even fit in the bridgehole at 67ft, but hey look… there is a ring to tie the front to right under the bridge.. I wondered how long that had been there, but it was very handy indeed!.. Odd to see that.. but at least it was dry under there.

While Wends was here she and Dan measured up for curtains and for the foam for the dinette and the bunks..

Even the fiddly bits will fit in.. the material we have chosen is lovely, and while I was down celebrating the 80th birthday I had the opportunity to choose the perfect fabrics for the job.. ha the outside of the curtains will not be burgundy.. errr nor will NP2.. we have decided to have her painted at this stage, and that will happen next week.. I am keeping the colours a secret!.. Anyone want a sweepstake on the outcome?!! .. well I have already said not burgundy so there is a start..

I have to say how amazed I am at all the good wishes I have received since I have been offline, and I thank all of you, I am amazed at how many people read this blog you know.. anyway enough for now, more later!