Reading

Another beautiful morning as we set off, stopping shortly afterwards at the water point above Cleeve lock to fill up as there are no other points available today. Into the lock and we were on our way, planning to reach Reading in time to meet with Andrew who was arriving by train at 13:43.

All went well through Goring and the long reach to Pangbourne - we saw now moving powered boats almost the whole way, just three scullers as we set off.

Arriving at Whitchurch Lock, a fisherman in a small dinghy was attempting to empty the lock in order to come up. Somehow he had managed to confuse the automatic mechanism which stubbornly refused to recognise that both sets of sluices were closed. A call to the Environment Agency promised a lock keeper within the hour and, true to the promise, about 50 minutes later one arrived and quickly reset the system. By this time the fisherman had disappeared elsewhere!


We had lunch on the move - Christine's latest soup based on the carcass remains of the chicken from two days ago - delicious, especially with kazakhstan bread!


By one o'clock we were in Reading and decided to moor alongside Reading bridge as it is closer to the station than the planned meeting point. We contacted Andrew who was at Pewsey, just about to board his train and re-arranged the meeting. Within the hour he was on board and we set off straight away.


After Caversham Lock it was a short distance to the Tesco mooring where we stopped to stock up on food before beginning the 'interesting' cruise up through the Oracle Centre on the River Kennet. The channel is narrow for the amount of water coming down - presumably it was created before the canal was re-opened for navigation. Progress is immediately much slower, with the constant risk of being forced to one bank or the other by the current.

One section is too dangerous for two-way traffic - downstream is especially difficult to control - there are several blind bends as well. A traffic-light system enforces one-way traffic and even landing at County Lock is tricky. The weir - less than a metre drop, is immediately adjacent to the lock and creates swirling currents.

We continued up the winding section to Fobney Lock. The entrance here is complicated by a fast mill stream just at the tail of the lock with the river coming in from the opposite side! As it happened, the bottom gates were open and we could go straight in. The top gates have an interesting latch mechanism - will the others be the same on this canal?

Above the lock we moored for the night. There is some concern about the electrics as the battery monitor display has shut down entirely, although some lights still operate! Life on a boat is never uneventful!