Devizes

Today's Canal : Kennet and Avon

We had a rather disturbed night as both of us were still suffering from the last throes of the cold which has plagued us for the past fortnight. Although, as a result, we were up early, this did not convert into an early departure!

Leaving Christine to finish getting up, Mike drove the short distance to Malborough to the Tesco store on the outskirts of the town. It had looked quite a large store when we have passed it before but it turned out to be a more modest affair but at least it provided the milk and newspaper that were the main reasons for coming as well as a few other items.

Just after nine o'clock we were ready to set off but as Christine went down to the lock to set it, the crew from a boat coming up arrived and opened the bottom gates - the lock was in any event empty. However, they had somewhat misjudged the time that their boat would take to arrive so we had a little wait before we could eventually make our way down.

This was to be our only lock of the day - the plan was to get to Devizes and possibly a few locks down, ready to tackle the main flight soon after opening time tomorrow.

When we first awoke there had been some light rain but it cleared by the time we set off - however a very heavy shower quickly turned up and was in danger of leaving the steerer quite soaked. However, it eased off within the hour and after midday it was dry. The afternoon became pleasantly sunny, fluffy clouds, patches of blue skies and warm sunshine.

Pewsey Wharf

We called at Pewsey Wharf just long enough to empty the elsan. The wharf is about a mile from the centre of the town itself.

It is a long, level pound from Wootton Rivers through to the top lock at Devizes, around 15 miles. It winds around the contours, passing close to several small villages and country estates. This footbridge is said to be unusual as it is a suspension construction.

Much of the route is surrounded by well developed trees and shrubs - very green as the rain gradually cleared.

Lady's Bridge

Lady's Bridge was one of several in the system that were built in an ornate fashion to appease the local landowners, no doubt out to use their influence to get a better deal that was the standard offer to those whose land was being bought by the emerging canal companies.

Today's lesson is . . .

Time for young cygnets to be taught how to gather their food - passing boats seem to be a soften option than real scavenging!

The surrounding landscape is often quite level but the downs sometimes provide interesting grassy hills.

The towpath at this stage is part of The White Horse Trail - and here it is!

Barge Inn, Honeystreet

The Barge Inn, once a favourite stopping point for boat crews no doubt, has for some time been run as a local cooperative. It seemed quite busy and the adjacent camp site was almost full.

About 11:30, Christine decided to make soup from the lamb bones which our butcher packed with tomorrow's roasting joint. This meant that we would have to wait until after 1 o'clock for our lunch but, as it happened, a good visitor mooring at All Cannings had room for us so we pulled in there. Most of the canal is very difficult indeed to use for mooring. apart from the lack of water depth at the edges, extensive undergrowth has to be hacked down to enable crew to jump ashore and usually a gangplank is needed.

After lunch we continued with a couple of swing bridges for additional interest. The first was unusual because at some time it has been re-built as a narrow footpath bridge although the original brickwork is for a normal tractor width.

At times the lack of weed and reed clearance has led to a much reduced channel, at times barely more than a wide beam's width. It would not be good to meet an on-coming craft in this stretch.

Shortly before the second swing bridge Christine went to the cupboard at the back of the boat - brushes and cleaning materials are the main occupants but it also houses the electrical centre including the inverter. She noticed that an alarm was sounding and the we also discovered that the domestic batteries were no longer charging and the outside control panel also showed a warning light.

We stopped at the bridge landing and Mike took a look under the engine floorboards. The problem was immediately apparent - we needed a new fan belt! Although the existing one was badly frayed it was still a complete circle so he tried to re-fit it for a temporary fix. However, either he did not tighten the belt enough (most likely) or its frayed state was too great, but it soon came off yet again but it did establish that, once replaced we should be OK.

As Mike continued at full speed towards Devizes, Christine searched for our spare belt but to no avail. Instead she established that we could obtain spares at Hilperton and so Andrew was prevailed upon to act as transport services and agreed to meet us at Devizes Wharf. He and Christine set off whilst Mike made a start on the evening meal.

They returned quite quickly - the chap at the boatyard was not sure about the size so he sold them two. Alas, when we tried to fit the larger we could not get it on. It was at that point that we remembered the difficulty that the call-out engineer had in fitting the old one, which was the nearest that he had with him. Although we made an attempt to find a motor parts shop still open they had all close at five.

By now the battery level was at an alarming (!) level and so we did all we could to conserve what we had. Fortunately, with such late, light evenings we did not need to use the cabin lights and there was sufficient hot water. Andrew went with Mike to park our car at his house and also brought back some ice blocks to help reduce the fridge power demand. (This is always the biggest user overnight).

By now the laptop battery had also run down so it was not possible to complete this blog and pictures last night, even though it had almost all been written.

15.1 miles - 1 lock