Barge trip post 4, Semington, Claverton and on to Bath Marina

 Thursday 15/08/24

Looking down the Caen Hill flight from the top - a continuous stream of locks down the hill.

The last three days promised plenty of excitement and nerves as we would have to descend down the Caen Hill flight, cross two large aquaducts and descend down the final steep flight of lock onto the Avon river in Bath.

On our way!

Keeping a lookout while Nathan moves into the passing area to let two narrowboats through.

Looking back up as we near the bottom of the flight.

We left Devizes early as we knew the Caen hill flight could be very slow going, if busy.  This is the longest continuous flight of locks in the UK and comprises 29 locks, descending 237 feet over two miles.  The locks are almost back to back with small passing areas in between so vessels move both up and down at the same time, coordinating their movements through the locks like a slow dance.  

Of course, we were the biggest barge by far and it took some special skippering to get through without incident.  

The flight looked intimidating in Charmaine's canal guide - but we made it.

Toni with a weary dragonfly (see inset) hitching a ride.

We set up a good team movement, with two people letting Nathan into a lock, closing him in, draining it and letting him through while the third person moved ahead to prepare the next lock - and we would have made really good time had it not been for the disruption of other boats coming in the opposite direction.  That said, it could have been much busier and we managed to get through all the locks  in two and a half hours, not bad at all.

Service with a smile!

One of the more unusual locks - no brick walls on this one.

The next day we had two aquaducts to get through, crossing over the Avon river and railway line at Avoncliff and back again at Dundas.

A narrow squeeze over the Dundas aquaduct.

The final day looked like a short trip into Bath but, as usual, with having to pass so many moored boats at 'dead slow' speed, as well as having to squeeze past  vessels coming from the front, it was slow going and took us almost all day.  

Once moored at the Marina, it was time to pack up and give the boat a good clean.  We spent the final night on the boat after a lovely team supper at the Marina pub.

Arriving at the outskirts of Bath

On Friday morning we travelled back to London, Charmaine and Nathan then heading off to Teddington to fetch their van and the two of us going to Limehouse to fetch Dassie.  Unbelievably, a journey that took us 10 days of hard work by boat only took us four hours to retrace our steps by train.

Lock-keeper Heron on duty today.

We passed through 121 locks in total, 107 of them self-serviced on the canal and travelled 153 miles over 74 hours.  We also opened countless swing bridges along the way - this has truly been an epic adventure!

Charmaine's daily lock log for the canal stage.

It was fantastic to spend such quality time with Nathan and Charmaine and to watch them operating as a team, giving us an idea of what is involved with moving these boats around.  We certainly learned some new skills and got to experience a unique view of part of the UK on the waterways.

It was a masterclass in boatmanship and a wonderful time together.

In case anyone thinks we were 'roughing it' on board.

We slept like logs on the trip,
a combination of extreme fatigue and a super-comfy bed