Dundas Wharf, Kennet and Avon Canal

Some of the sights of the Somerset bit of the K&A:

Two out of date licences do not make a current one











Are boats cold in Winter?














Yet another tedious cruise, hardly out of tickover all the way. Four miles in two hours. We stopped at Dundas Wharf to be out of town for the football match and we knew we could get the satellite dish to work there.






A white card base. The stamp is Australian and was stamped onto watercolour paper, coloured with water colours and cut out, then matted onto green and black card.

Then a green and white gingham ribbon was tied in a knot and wrapped around the card, fixing the ends with double-sided tape.

Dundas Wharf, Kennet and Avon Canal

All the swing bridges on the western side of the summit have this sign on them.









But someone or some people have stolen all the padlocks!

It does make opening the closing of the bridges so much easier now. No more getting onto hands and knees (on the wet ground) to get a key into a padlock.

The Kennet and Avon canal is a wide canal - except hear when there isn't even room for two narrowboats to pass.

This is the (or will be, hopefully sooner rather than later) the entrance to the Wilts and Berks Canal. It will, one day, go up to Abingdon to join the River Thames.

Nine miles, seven locks, five swing bridges and five hours to get to Bradford-on-Avon.

Now for a completely different canal. One of the Llangollen lift bridges. The photo is matted onto silver, blue and lime green card. The blue mat is scalloped. The lime green mat was cut longer at the bottom and I wrapped a blue and green spotted ribbon around it and tied it in a knot. The base card is blue.

nnnn

Foxhangars, Kennet and Avon Canal

Some of the many signs littering the lock flight

Two for cyclists, 1 for dog walkers. Don't think I've ever seen so many dogs being walked along a towpath!











More information for walkers!









And, finally, some for boaters.










On this one, the shop, for the shop in Rowde, says that if you telephone them with an order, they will deliver. Now there's service.







We did the three locks down to the flight early, arriving at 0645 and waited on the lock landing until the gates were unlocked at 0800. There were two other boats on the overnight mooring, a widebeam and a trailable Otter.

The lockkeeper unlocked the gates at 0800 but there was no sign of life from either of the boats so we set off. All the locks are emptied at night to prevent flooding (or stop the flooding because no-one has fixed the leaks), so they were all against us; but at about half way down we came upon a couple of lockkeepers and were helped down the rest of the flight. We were the only boat using the lock flight the whole time we were traversing it, so we were glad we didn't wait the 30 minutes for another boat to come along, 'cos none did.

There are actually only 16 locks in the flight and it is possible to stop at either end, but only overnight. Unfortunately, the moorings at the bottom have collapsed and are unusable so we had to go on another 7 locks to get here - so that made 26in all - though we joined Esther for the last 6. Then it was a quick lunch and a long snooze and early to bed.


Here is a decoupaged granny card. The base card is pink and I added some cotton lace along the bottom half. The decoupage is fixed onto a gold panel which has been deckle edged with scisssors before being stuck to the left hand side of the card. Three glass gems are added to the top right hand corner and a "sewing kit" to the bottom right hand corner.

Devizes Wharf

Don't have any pictures today, so here is a card made with a photo of Devizes Wharf during the Wharf Festival several years ago.

We are gathering up our strength for the Caen Flight tomorrow, so are resting here for the day.

I took a bus into Salisbury to see how. It is alovely ride through beautiful villages and over the downs, just missing Stonehenge.

Devizes, Kennet & Avon Canal

Two sights today. David didn't notice the head sticking out of the back of this boat. He was having his breakfast fag.










And this one is on a 48 hour visitor mooring. Notice the stuff on the towpath and the duck house. Some 48 hours!





















It was a very early start as we had an appointment with Richard at Devizes Marina to look at the gearbox. It is only 10 1/4 miles but it took us 3 3/4 hours because there are so many boats moored precariously along the towpath that you can hardly get out of tick-over.



The "o" ring was replaced, along with oil in the gearbox and we managed to just squeeze into a space on the moorings at Devizes wharf at 1pm.












A sunny, sunflower. That is to remind us that it is June, and it is Summertime, and there should be sunshine. But there isn't.

The card began with a silk sunflower, bought in a bunch from a charity shop. I cut off the back and stuck it onto a die-cut circle and then stuck that onto a white hammered card blank.

Pewsey, Kennet and Avon Canal

And yet another boat being relieved of its moorings.

We arrived at Wooton Rivers by 0845 and were going to spend the day and night on the moorings there, and have lunch in the pretty thatched pub, but there was no TV reception and no shop to get a Sunday newspaper. So it was "on-on" to Pewsey. So we are now on our way down again.

Pewsey is about as close as I can get to my old home where I grew up, so lots of happy memories around here.


This boat was on the moorings at Wooton Rivers.














Just for a change, not a canal themed card.

I think the bear came free with a magazine. I stuck it to a panel of pink card with sticky fixers and matted that onto lilac card. It was then stuck to a yellow card base. A lilac bow was fixed to the bottom right hand corner of the topper.

Crofton, Kennet and Avon Canal

My favourite bridge. It is called New Bridge, and the trees are covering the parapet, which is crumbling away. Not that new a bridge after all.

Lots of hard work today. 13 locks and 2 swing bridges. We were just coming up a lock when a boat began getting ready to set off. Good! I thought. Help is at hand. Then the lady came out onto the stern and she was wearing a creamy yellow top and a pair of WHITE trousers! S***! I thought. You'll be doing the locks yourself then. And do you know what? I did! She was a lovely lady though, a real Barbara Windsor look-alike, all friendly and bubbly and hadn't got a clue.

The moorings below the Crofton pump house were a welcome sight. We had lunch in the cafe there which is run by the K&A Trust and in the early evening my brother and sister-in-law came up from Blandford for a quick visit.




A card for the histerics among you. President and Kildare. A photo matted onto silver, red, black and red card and stuck to a white card blank. Two lines of silver (or black - can't remember now) peel-off strips are added each side.