The K & A Canal - Devises to Bath 19.6.13 Pt 1

The Kennet & Avon Canal, Devizes to Bath

Pt 1. Devizes to Seend Cleeve 

Wednesday 19th June and its Devises day!

I'm so excited I wake up at 5.30am and take Jack out for his walk. It's a beautiful day already, the suns shining but it's still a little misty. 

 We spot a deer in the cemetery that stays still long enough for me to get a good look at it. 

We walk through the garlic woods, the cow meadows and back to the boat. 

 Breakfast, and we leave our little spot at Devises. 7.15am and were raring to go! 

 Weaving our way to the top of the locks, people nudging their boats in where they can!

Its official, we're at the top, on our way down

We've got 6 locks, 16 locks and a final 7 locks, total of 29 locks in the flight all in less than 3 miles.

We're on our own for the first part, obviously as its so early! The locks were mainly in our favour, full and waiting for us to go down. 

Taking a breather in the 24hr moorings before the flight of 16 locks

We got to the bottom of the first 6, then we pulled over at 9.00am on one of the three spaces in the 24 hr moorings to wait for another boat to join us down the next lot. 

We didn't have to wait long, one of the other spots was taken by Oh La La, they were waiting for someone to come down to join them!

By 9.30am we were ready, fueled up for the long slog down the locks.

Before we made our dash for it.....look at the view!

Lock after lock after lock I guided Happy Daze in and out of the locks, paired up with a guy who I never asked his name and Denise his wife who, along with Paul, pushed and shoved the big wooden gates, wound the handles up and down to let the water in and out, ran to the next lock to get that ready for us to cruise on into when wed left the last. The view from the top was amazing! 

The first of many ......

 Face to face with a wide beam.... and nowhere to go!

Concentration is what its all about!

.... we still can't see to the bottom 

... but we've just done this many!

You looked down on the flight of locks and across the valley onto the massive hills in the distance. The sun shone beautifully all day, making it very thirsty work. At 11.45am we had finally reached the last lock in the flight of 16 and we needed to get our breath back and fuel up again. 

Stopping for a well earned break... 
there was only one space left so we had to double up, not to Jack's agreement!

Yikes! We've just come down that!

12.45pm and we're ready to do the last 7 locks in the massive Devises flight of 29. Our boat buddies for the day were ready too, so we set off together. By the time we were half way through we all felt like we'd had enough. 

Leaving one of the last few locks .... another in the distance

 A hotel boat waiting for customers.... see the collapsable roof terrace!

We were so ready to stop it seemed ages before we finally reached the last lock. 

We got through and pulled over opposite the new Caen Hill Marina, just around the corner from the only two 24 hr moorings at the bottom which, of course, were taken. 

Our boat buddies pulled over in front of us. We were done in! Jack was too, he'd done the whole flight with Paul, loving it all the way. He got a bit hot at one point but nothing that a soaking with cold water couldn't fix!

We made it, we survived the Caen Hill flight, or Devises flight as it's called!

We sat outside and celebrated in the sunshine! It's really quiet here, walks are great, there's a few boats pulled in up the canal, some waiting in anticipation of what's ahead of them, some deciding to moor up and walk it instead and some, like us, relieved its all over (until the return journey at least).

Thursday and we wake up late. We walk Jack and decide because the weather is wet today we would stay here and do some chores. Stuff still has to be done, and it won't do itself!

So Paul clears out the front deck and cleans up there and I scrub the fire down and give it its yearly paint up and make over. After lunch we took Jack out for his walk, or should I say run! He ran and ran and ran so much over the cow fields, had a brilliant time. At this point we never realised Jack had a hitch hiker on board!

We had a couple of little families come and visit us

Back at the boat we washed him and dried him, he was actually up to his belly in cow drink slush while we were out and he stunk! Making a fuss of him when he was clean I discovered a small lump on his belly. It turned out to be his very first ever tick. And mine too, I'd never dealt with anything like that before. Never even seen one, except in pictures! I noticed the little legs wiggling, the body waiting to be filled with Jacks blood. So there was only one thing for it, tweezers out I managed to get it out whole, I think. Horrid, horrid thing. Made me feel so sorry for Jack. he didn't seem bothered at all!

It's chilly now, the sun didnt shine, it's not been a pleasant day today.

Paul's had the best fishing over two nights ever! He caught loads of fish, he was very happy! He sat outside playing his mandolin until it got dark.

Its Friday June 21st, the longest day of the year. It's a beautiful day, sun's shining warm already and it's still early. We've got just 5 locks and 3 miles to do today, shouldn't take too long! Ha! Not on this canal! It took us most of the day to do just that! In fact it took us 4.5 hours to do 8 lock miles!

We spotted a water and rubbish point at Sells Green Bridge, so we took advantage and filled up and got rid of rubbish. There's some great moorings here too, but as usual they're all full up. But we weren't ready to stop yet. We went on to the first Swingbridge and then to the next. then the first of the five Seend locks, all of which were against us.

All sorts of comotion was going on here, Paul goes to see what's going on 

Only the day before on this flight of locks a pair of Hotel Boats got wedged in one of the locks which closed the flight for a day. The boats had to be winched out and this caused a traffic jam. 

There was still some boats waiting to go through so we were in a mini queue. When it was our turn we noticed boats all over the canal turning round, reversing, reving up..... so we waited for it all to settle down, and we were on our way. 

There were some workers strimming and mowing and cutting, people were having to wait to go into the lock until they had finished. Crazy, crazy place!

Another hold up! As we came out of the lock a wide beam had come off its moorings and we had to get the barge pole out and punt it back across the canal, helped by some keen cyclists. So another obstacle overcome! Finally the commotion was over we were at the bottom of the locks. 

We spotted a lovely little place to stop by Seend Swingbridge no. 155. Opposite the bridge mooring was the perfect spot.

 Moored up at our little spot beside Seend Swing Bridge

In fact it turned out to be a great spot! 

We had internet connection, we had phone signal and a telly signal. There was a spiders web of dog walks across some amazing meadows. And there were loads of fish to catch! We were also only 15 mins from the Tesco in Bowerhill and 15 mins by bike to the maggot shop. It was also very sunny and we had full time entertainment from all the hire boats as they tackled the swingbridge. So bloomin' great I say!

The weather is supposed to be rough over the weekend so the plan is to stay here till Monday. Its perfect! 

But what made it more perfect was the visit from my great buddies Lyndsey and Anna! They texted to let us know they were arriving on Saturday evening, they were calling in to us on their way back from their holiday in Newquay!

My god I'm so excited!

Saturday was windy, really windy. Paul cycled to Tescos and got wine and bread and puddings and I stayed in and made butternut squash soup and rock cakes (which burned but we still ate them!)

We had some brilliant walks today, hay fields, river banks, cow fields, woods and more meadows and fields. Jack willingly goes in the water now to cool off, think he may be learning that its fun! He swims to get sticks, happy as ever.

Lyndz and Anna arrived about 8pm, getting a bit lost on the way. But they got here! 

Jack went absolutely bonkers when he saw them, my god, he was happy! But so were we! It was great to see them, we chatted all night, ate lots and drunk lots, so cool to see my buddies!

The broken bottom lock at Seend.... no ones going anywhere for a while

We talked to every one who passed and heard that late in the evening on Saturday one of the hire boats had gone up through the first lock and had lifted the top gate off it's hinges as the front got caught on the front of their boat. Needless to say, the lock was then closed to boats!

We watched the hire boats entertain us as they went through the bridge, all hire boats out today, no one else would be daft enough to cruise in this weather. Some, like this one, tried to turn their boats around but didn't manage it, they found the canal wasn't as wide as they thought!

In the morning on Sunday after a late night we all grumbled out of bed and after a while took Jack out. 

Back at the boat we ate breakfast and chatted loads more and watched as more hire boaters turned up to the flight of locks but could not continue on their holiday, some were wanting to get their boats back to the hire companies and they were due to go out again on hire to new punters. 

 The queue below the broken lock... all but one boat is a hire boat!

But all had to pull their boats into the bank and stay there until the lock was mended.

The time soon came for my buddies to finish off their journey and get back to Woodford. Probably about another 4 hours drive not pleasant! So at 1.30pm we said our goodbyes, lots of hugs, and Paul and I walked Jack.

We had a quiet rest of the day. We love it here so we've decided that we're going to stay a few days longer and start the painting on the roof, only the front half as the back end is under sap laden trees, and that's just plain stupid to paint under trees!

Monday we scrubbed and filled and sanded and rust cured. Tuesday morning primer and by the afternoon the roof was ready for the first coat of blue. 

On Wednesday we did the second coat. 

Thursday was a hardening day, and by Friday we were ready enough to leave, carry on our travels.

We've had lots of fun here, on Monday the hire boats were all being shifted around, marina people were reversing and turning boats round most of the morning. By lunch time it had quietened down again, BW were at the lock helping people through, clearing the backlog. It was mended and cemented by Tuesday afternoon, all systems go again!

We were settling down on Tuesday evening when more commotion, in the hay meadow opposite this time. 

Jack playing in the hay meadows

The cows and their calfs and a huge black bull had somehow got out of their field and were running in the meadow like a load of wild animals let loose! They settled down after a while and the next day the farmer rounded them up and got them back in their own field!

On Wednesday just as I was about to paint the second coat on the roof the nice lads with the strimmers and mowers came to strim and mow and super blow around the boat!

Argh! Not now! And they didn't! They soon left and left our bit of grass too! They did come back tho but only for their tea break!

The next day we tidied and cleaned and washed the sap off the boat. Paul went and did a bit of shopping we got ready for our move tomorrow.

Friday 28th June we leave our little spot by Seend Cleeve Park Swingbridge.... our journey continues West, onwards to Bath for our hot steamy bath..... were aiming to get there for Pauls birthday, 5th July, he'll be 50!

But you never know what's around the next corner.....