Newbury and Pickletimber

Canal today : Kennet and Avon

After the wonderful sunshine yesterday, today was totally different. It was raining when we awoke and stayed that way pretty much all day.

As a result, Christine, Alice and Jess opted to stay inside most of the time - Alice had a pile of books to plough through.

The day's cruising began with another swing bridge which, unusually, proved exceptionally difficult to move. Made it in the end!

The route towards Newbury is rural and generally pretty, following the river once the navigation left the Long Cut. Each time we came back into the river above each lock, our speed over the ground dropped dramatically - the rain has done nothing to reduce the rate of flow.

Just below Greenham Lock we spotted a large Tesco store, a little closer than the Sainsbury we had planned to visit for the usual top up supplies. As the back was quite soft and we were not confident in leaving the boat in case a passing boat pulled out the mooring pins, just Christine and Jess went. They came back with more than planned including some strawberries for dinner.

We stayed moored for lunch, which included the sausages rolls which Jess had requested.

A little further we came to Newbury Marina. The only CRT facility is rubbish disposal. Water would have been £4 (even more for hire boats!) so we passed on that but did stump up £2 for the elsan disposal!

There were plenty of free mooring spaces all through Newbury, a contrast to our last visit four years ago when we had a bit of difficulty finding somewhere.

Newbury Lock is another challenge, although the river flow through the narrow section just below meant that we approached rather slowly. The lock landing is not easy to spot until the last moment, taking care over a strong flow from both right and left.

A couple of onlookers were keen to help which gave Christine a chance to do some more instruction.

This lock was the start of the canal link between the older Kennet and Avon river navigations. Some pieces of old tram tracks. And a puzzling notice are attached to the walk beside the lock, but, dear reader, you will have to come back here in the future to see any pictures.

Above the lock is a swing bridge which a few cars use to access the houses beside West Mill. Alas, one arrived just after Christine - and her two helpers - had closed the barriers. The wait was even longer as two boats came the other way after we had passed. The controls for the bridge are unusually hidden behind a small locked door in the power cabinet.

Mike was left much to himself through the next three locks. Once into a routine the locks proved quite straightforward (won't say 'easy' as that might tempt fate for tomorrow's locks!) although two had to be left empty.

Shortly after Benham Lock we found a possible mooring spot - there were several other boats here already - and we had seen very few just before. Although we had to deploy the gangplank again, we were closer to the bank than last night, but reeds and weeds made it impossible to come close enough to step on and off.

Xx miles - 7 locks