Tyle Mill

River Kennet

After Mike had been back to Tesco for a paper and some olive oil, we set off. Overnight it had been raining steadily and continued off and on most of the morning. We left the overnight mooring well before ten and quickly turned into the River Kennet.

It was immediately apparent that the river was still flowing well and, even with the throttle well open, we progressed over the land no faster than on the Southern Oxford!

The first lock, Blake's, is still part of the Environment Agency waters and has typical Thames paddle mechanisms, which work smoothly. A boat arrived from the other direction and confirmed that County Lock was indeed open. (We never did get a call back from CRT). A second boat had joined us coming through Blake's.

The section through the Oracle Center is narrow, twisty and fast flowing, even on a good day. As a result there are traffic lights to control one-way operation. We pulled in to the push button stand and allowed the other boat to pass before we set off - with the river pushing us into the side this might have been tricky.

The weir at County Lock was flowing well and there was no great rise - at least we could see the lock. About a month ago it was overwhelmed by the amount of water flow. The first boat prepared the lock and moved cautiously forward to go into it. Bad move! The weir is notorious for creating large eddies and he ended up being sucked towards the turbulent water just below the weir. He was able to make a full turn and came up behind us.

Forewarned, Mike eased our boat back as far as he could at the lock landing and charged full throttle for the entrance. It was not a pretty approach but we did get in first go without too much banging around, even stopping before colliding with the top gates!

After this excitement, Fobney Lock seemed a little tamer than either boat remembered. It has a substantial overflow from the adjacent waterworks but the lock landing seems now to dissipate most of the energy. As with many locks along this river, the bypass channel for the main river flow comes very close to the tail of the lock. Overall, this was a day for honing one's boat handling skills under some challenging situations.

By now we had left the urban development of Reading and were in open countryside. To one side is a string of lakes that were once gravel workings, and on the other side is the railway line that takes the same valley route as the canal and navigation for some considerable distance. However, it is usually sufficiently shielded by trees that it is not too much of a nuisance.

We continued for a further lock before finding a place to pull in and have our lunch. By now they rain had largely cleared - although there would be a couple of very heavy showers later on.

The next lock was on be of the two remaining turf sided ones which were originally more common on this canal. In more recent times, metal structures have been built either side to help boaters keep within the main chamber, especially useful when descending but also provide a means for the steerer to gain access to the lock side if needed.

Another unusual design followed at Sheffield Lock which has been built with scalloped sides. (Must find out why!)

Christine walked the short distance to Theale swing bridge which was once an opportunity to hold up streams of traffics. As it is only wide enough for a single vehicle, even without boat operations it was a bottleneck. Today, other routes are available and we only created short queues!

We now learned that the Windsor car had left earlier than we were told this morning and we arranged to meet at Tyle Mill as we were keen to replenish our depleted water stocks. This is the first water point after the start of the canal and there was no obvious facility at the boatyard before we left yesterday.

We had to wait a while for another boat to move off - looked as if they had planned a long stay there! So we were only just begiininbg to attach the hosepipe when the car pulled in to the wharf. (We had already used the other services)

Alice and Jess unloaded their baggage and settled in to their usual spaces. Adrian and Joanna were despatched to prepare the lock and then operate the swing bridge when we were ready to enter. There is a very short gap, less than a boat length, between the bridge and the tail gates.

Above the lock, Ellie, Adrian and Joanna bade us farewell and we went not more than 200 meters where there was a vacant space just after the permit holders only section.

Soon after, disaster struck. Looking for a slot on the new laptop for the camera SD card, Mike managed to insert it in the wrong place, lose it inside and then fatally damage the laptop in his efforts to retrieve it. Oh dear! We are now once more back to using the tablets (Mike needed something to calm him down - a good scream!)

9 locks - xx miles