Reading and Beale Park

Today's Navigations : Kennet and Avon; River Thames

The day started very pleasant but clouds gathered during the day and by the time we stopped it had been overcast, sometimes a bit chilly, for some while.

Sulhampstead Weir and sunny skies

Hidden warning

This is a canalised river and every so often there is a channel leading off to a weir that takes the main flow of water past a lock. usually they are clearly marked but not always kept visible! This sign should have directed the unwary to the right.

Theale Swing Bridge

We still had a number of locks and swing bridges to negotiate before Reading, including the once infamous Theale Swing Bridge. At one time this was a much more significant commuter route than it is today and long queues of traffic could build up, with the passage of just a single boat. We only managed four cars today! the CaRT pusher tug was not as much an obstacle as it looked from this distance.

The navigation is often very pretty until just before the outskirts of Reading come into sight. At places it is quite bendy but that is not so easy to capture on camera, especially when steering around tight bends. We were heading downstream and the combination of flow and depth meant that we sometimes travelled at a rather unfamiliar speed.

Garston Lock

At Garston Lock a boat had just left and said that they would wait at the next lock for us. Indeed, as we arrived at Burghfield Lock they were in and waiting - not sure whether a boat on the landing below was quite as pleased as we were! In any event, we shared all the locks down to the River Thames where we both moored for a short while on the Tesco Mooring.

As we passed under the railway bridge just before Fobney we spotted the graffiti, wondering what it might mean, suspecting it did not refer to the presence of a security camera!

Fobney Lock can be difficult to exit with a strong flow from the river in one direction and the rather active by-wash in the other.

County Lock

This is training preparation for County Lock, scene of considerable difficulties earlier in the year when the river level was well above normal. Crews have to be dropped under the bridge just above so that boats are not hanging about close to the weir. Although it has a very shallow fall, it can easily pull boats towards it.

Below the lock there is an unexpected eddy that catches the unwary - rather than pushing boats towards the lock landing it pulls them towards the weir itself.

After the race through the narrow channel in the Oracle shopping centre, there is an extra loop which we have not explored before. On the Nicholsons map it shows two good moorings so we went to check them out for future reference. Indeed there was plenty of free mooring and rather better than the limited amount on the main section.

The second mooring seems to be protected by a vigilant angler!

We re-joined the main channel just before Blake's lock where our companion boat was still waiting. We had seen that a boat had just come up through and wondered why the gates were shut. Apparently, this boat had not only shut the gates but also left the bottom paddles open. They must have found it a challenge to open the top gates! To be fair, the paddle mechanisms are rather different from most canals, having a large wheel to turn - common on the unmechanised locks towards the upper reaches of the Thames.

We turned out at Kennet Mouth onto the Thames and our speed dropped dramatically as we encountered the flow in the opposite direction. However, minutes later we moored up for lunch followed by a trip to Tesco to stock up our food stores. By now the clouds had arrived and remained for the afternoon.

At Caversham Lock, the first lock on the Thames, Christine made an attempt to buy our temporary licence but the volunteer lock keeper was not able to do this. He suggested we try again at the next lock!

We passed through the Reading riverside before heading out into the countryside.

For a while there were some highly expensive houses beside the water, mostly uninspiring to look at but occasionally something different.

Back on the river we had to keep an eye out for the occasional rowers.

Most of the remaining route today was along tree and shrub lined sections with a few islands diving the channel.

Inside Mapledurham Lock

Mapledurham Lock came after an hour and a quarter following our departure from Caversham - one of the longest gaps for some time. When the keeper opened the top sluices, it looked as if a tsunami was about to overwhelm us! Christine was also able to obtain our licence.

Just below Whitchurch we came across a group of youngsters taking to the water - literally as several of them overturned their canoes throwing them into the river. Not too sure about the safety supervision, given the flow of water downstream!

Whitchurch Bridge is undergoing major repairs and what seems to be a temporary footbridge has been erected alongside. Only reported this so that we can include this amusing panoramic photo - of course the bridge it not really like that!

A little further and we opted for a mooring space at Beale Park. Just below there was a clear sign indicating a 24hrs space and above we spotted a sign saying Mooring in large letters. After we had tied up a closer look suggests that there might once have been a No as well but as it is not there now we stayed put!

Before preparing the evening meal, Christine took a short walk along the bank and took some photos of the views.

18.4 miles - 11 locks