Saturday 10/08/24
Lack of time and poor data connections have meant I wasn't able to blog regularly while on the barge but, now that we are back in France (the time seems to have flown by), I will upload more photos, spread over another three more posts.
Days 4 & 5 saw us leaving the Thames and entering the Kennet and Avon canal / river system and passing through Reading.
It quickly became apparent how challenging moving such a large craft through a creaking canal system would be. At 22m long, the barge only just fitted into the locks and had to be held up against the doors in many cases to fit in below the cill (this is a large raised ledge a the top end of the lock which the top gate shuts against).
We often had to open one lock door at a time, with Nathan shimmying the bow from one side to another in order for them to pass by.
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| Passing out of the Thames, under the railway and into the Kennet |
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| Lock 1 on the canal |
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| Passing through the centre of Reading |
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| As you can see, there isn't much space to get under some of the bridges! |
Unfortunately the canal system is in quite a sad state without proper maintenance being done by anyone, and leaking locks, broken paddles and overgrown stretches of the canal became the order of the day.
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| Lock-keeper McGoose on duty. |
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| This swan even had it's own tent. 😁 |
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| We found a lovely quiet spot near Woolhampton to spend the night. Added bonus, it was walking distance to a lovely pub for a well-deserved team supper. |
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| One of the rare wide areas I could be trusted to steer. |
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| Some of the infrastructure was literally falling apart! |
To be continued...
Photo credits: photos are by myself, Toni , Charmaine and Nathan - a real team effort.
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