We enjoyed our meal at the Swan at Thatcham, I had chicken with a garlic and mushroom sauce, CHS had a burger, we were back on the boat by 7 and in bed and reading by 8:30. After breakfast, cooked for CHS, cereal and a banana for me we set off. We left Thatcham at 10:30, the first lock was Monkey Marsh lock, one of only two turf sided locks on the K&A. We were helped through this lock by a very dapper gentlemen with shoulder length grey hair and wearing a brown cord jacket, chinos and a pink silk waistcoat.
Next was the Long Cut swing bridge, this is a bugger of a bridge, very heavy and I cannot manage it on my own, fortunately there were no irascible joggers to shout at me here.
Next came Widmead lock, this lock was full to the top and the area around was flooded, next was Bulls lock and swing bridge, they are very close together. There was a boat coming, towards us crewed by 8 young men who helped us through the lock and bridge.
After that it was Ham lock, where again there was a boat coming towards us so another quick lock.
Finally we came to Greenham lock, this is where we will be getting the boat blacked later in the year.
This lock was also overfull we moored just past the lock and just before Newbury on a stretch of armco. It was almost time for the Grand Prix highlights, I will prepare lunch whilst he watches the race, we will move on when the programme has finished and look for somewhere to moor the other side of Newbury.
3 comments:
Loving your record of your trip. Have you started traveling full time or is it just weekends?
Wow! Having sat in many traffic jams around Newbury in past years I am jealous of your beautiful progress along that way!
It's a lot of had work. Will you have to move all the time now that the winter marina is over?
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