Monday 26 June 2017

Pewsey to Foxhangers

Sun 18th Jun  Pewsey

We walked into Pewsey this morning with Pat, but Tony was unwell so remained on the boat.

Blue flower

We went to the 1030 service at the Methodist Church where we were warmly welcomed. Music was supplied by piano and guitar and was a bit dated (e.g. Rejoice, rejoice, Christ is in you).

Pewsey Methodist

The preacher was Rev Paul Lim from South Korea, who spoke about being joyful.  His talk was translated by the visiting minister who was leading the service.

Rev Paul Lim

Methodist congregation

After the service we found our way to the Crown Inn, which is a little off the beaten track, up a side road. There we had a lovely lunch in a very unspoilt pub.  We returned to the boats by crossing the railway at the station.

Unusual building in Pewsey, near the Crown

We couldn’t avoid the uphill walk in the heat back to the canal.  It was VERY HOT and James caught up with the blog

Later we sat out with wine and nibbles.  We chatted to a pleasant man on Carrie Anne who had been playing a ukele earlier.

James trundled two cassettes to the wharf and emptied them so that we could didn’t have to spend further time in the morning.

No boating today


Mon 19th Jun  Pewsey to Devizes

We made a very early start (5.45am) and hopefully managed to slip away quietly without disturbing anyone.

Creeping past Paws 4 Thought

Pewsey Wharf

Stowell Park Bridge, apparently unique

We had a lovely cruise through the Vale of Pewsey in the White Horse Hills. We saw several yellowhammers singing loudly from the tops of bushes. We also had a good view of two chiff chaffs, which are usually heard but not seen. There was a kestrel around, and at one point there was a small water vole swimming in the canal.
Wide Water

Lady’s Bridge

Picked Hill (incorrectly called Pickled Hill by Nicholson)

Brick bridge and WWII defences

The Barge Inn at Honeystreet

Heron staying put

We saw two white horses – one near Honey Street, and another as we approached Devizes. We had two swing bridges – Allington and Bishops Cannings

Bishops Cannings Swing Bridge

How does this get through the locks?

Second brood

The main length of mooring in Devizes, between bridge 140 and 141, had been suspended, as there was work going on to improve the towpath.  There was nowhere else to moor, so boats were there anyway, and we took the last space, opposite the wharf.

The slope at Devizes

The closed gate

Babs arrived later and moored alongside us. She had also set off at 5.45am, from Wootton Rivers.

We had small appetites because of the heat, so we had a late lunch mid afternoon.

Babs came with us as we found our way to the Lamb Inn for a singaround evening of Devizes Folk Club run by Bob and Gill Berry.  The pub was very quaint with little side rooms and a courtyard. The club met in an upstairs room. There were some talented people in the room, including Bob and Gill who had great harmonies and strong voices.

Devizes Folk Club

0 locks, 11 miles, 2 swing bridges

Mon 19th Jun  Devizes to Caen Hill

We walked into the town and found a nice cafe where we had Eggs Royale before doing some shopping at Morrison’s.  Sadly they did not stock their own Vintage Cider which comes in a 2.25 litre box.  They were having trouble with the heat, and all their freezer cabinets had been emptied and switched off.

Horse drawn beer in Devizes

On the way back James managed to take the trolley down the blocked off slope instead of using the steps. The towpath works appeared to need six workboats.

Six workboats

On board it was 32deg C  (90 deg F)

Later, when it had cooled down a little, we filled the water tank, and went with Babs down six locks to the top of the Caen Hill flight, where we moored on the lock bollards, as there were no further boat movements that evening.

Passing Rosie

Heading for Caen Hill

Lock 46 to 45

We spoke to a man from CRT who was there on his quad bike.  All the locks were set against us with a bottom paddle raised. We understood that the padlock on the top gate would not be unlocked until 8am, although we could have done with it at 6am to avoid the heat of the day. We asked if we could begin setting the first six locks from 7am so that we could get a good start.  We were told that we might flood the pounds and we would have to leave it to CRT staff who would carefully manage the water levels.

We had a pleasant pasta meal al fresco by the lock bollards.


Sunset views from Caen Hill

6 locks, 1 mile

Wed 21st Jun  Caen Hill to Foxhangers

We woke early because of the heat and the fact it was mid summers day.  We got the boats all ready for the off when we had the signal from CRT.

Ready to go at 5am

Close to 8am we noticed the locks were still all set against us.

We saw a guy from CRT disappear on a quad bike, and discovered he had unlocked the gates. He did not even come to say we were clear to proceed. You would have thought he would have come over to ask whether we had done it before, let us know if there were boats starting from the other end and other helpful information.  He had also left all the locks as they were, empty with a bottom paddle up. He hadn’t closed the paddles as we had expected, “carefully managing the water supply so as not to flood the pounds”. He left us to do what we could have started doing an hour earlier.

James walked down six locks and closed the bottom paddle and opened the top paddle, walked back up doing the same on each one, then walked down again opening the top gates. Then he walked back up again to help the boats through.  Babs by then had locked Hazel through the first two locks with the two boats tied together. 

Third lock of the day

This was the pattern all the way down, with one person going ahead to set the locks, and the other locking the two boats through.   James asked a walker if there were any boats coming up and was told there were two. We then started leaving the gates open, and we sent a message via another walker asking the ascending boats to do the same.

Further down

There was one lock where boats are asked to leave separately as the gates won’t open fully. Thankfully this was also where we met the two boats coming up, so we had to cross over separately anyway. The other boats seemed to have about six crew between them, and they asked us how we had managed to get down so far. We had good team work. 

Changeover

Tied together again

When we had about twelve out of the sixteen locks, two volunteers came and asked us if we would like help.  They pushed a gate or two and raised a paddle once or twice which gave us a short break, and they too were impressed with how far down the flight we had come.

At the end of the main flight of sixteen locks, our volunteers left us, and we had a further seven locks to do.

Sixteen done and what do you get?

A volunteer

At one point Hazel had to steer the boats through water lilies, and collected a nest of greenery on the prop.  While James was removing the vegetation, Hazel noticed that the bilge pump was on its side. It was too hot to deal with it straight away.

Lilies from the prop

There was nowhere to moor properly until we reached Foxhangers where there were some rings.  The boats were in the sun, and it was baking hot inside, 33degC. Thankfully there were some trees overhanging a grassy area on the towpath, and we could sit and recover in a slight breeze.  Hazel prepared a Mexican meal which we ate outside with Babs.

There was a black backed gull around, and twice we saw it catch something in the water. The second time we could see legs hanging down and we think it may have been a frog, or a baby moorhen.

Moored at Foxhangers

Sunset at Foxhangers

We both went for a walk at dusk along a disused railway line and back along the towpath. Last time here in 2006 we saw a badger run across the track, and there were glow-worms in the grass.  This time we saw neither but we did spot two foxes in a field.  There were lots of cats on the boats moored along this stretch.

This was mid summers day, and also the hottest day of the year, and we chose to do the Caen Hill flight!!  Mad dogs and Englishmen....

23 locks, two miles


Next: Foxhangers to Bath, aiming for the Vineyard church on Sunday.  The blog is a bit behind due to the recent exhausting hot weather.

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