1st May '13

Wow May already. The weather decided that it was summer today and it's been glorious. I forgot to mention yesterday that we'd gone past a large herd (is it a herd?) of alpaca (should there we an 's') (what a lot I don't know). They were happily grazing away, growing lots of fleece that we will eventually knit into wondrous things.

Anyway onto today - it's been a bit of a mix of good and not so good, so we'll do this chronologically.

This was our mooring in Reading - the Gaol is on the right of us.

The back of the gaol's wall is the newer one, the older structure is the old abbey, that is now apparently so precarious that you can't go around it. Both structures are surprisingly large - we decided not to go into the gaol - it appears that it's fairly easy to go in but very tricky to get out!

We assumed that this boat doesn't move too often! The moorhen looked very comfy in her nest, good on her.

The river goes straight through the town centre and this is the Oracle - a fairly new shopping centre. We didn't investigate this time. You can't moor up here because there's a very narrow section to get into it - in fact there is a traffic light system in operation so you mustn't stop.

Once out of the town precincts, the river becomes fairly narrow, compared to the Thames in any case. The current is really strong and we've had a message from Allison and Dave to say that it only came off red alert on Monday! There's nothing on the river to suggest caution is needed, but you only have to look at the way twigs etc are racing down to know that it's pretty hairy. The weirs are impressive!

Here we are in the first lock. They are double locks and pretty long on the whole. The weir is just on the left of the boat. It's shades of Llangoglen at times getting into them.

 This tree was almost completely across the river, but there were people working away with chainsaws clearing it as quickly as possible. We were able to squeeze past luckily. We knew it must be possible because our neighbours of last night had left a good hour and a half before us, and since we hadn't seen them, we knew they must have got through.

This is where our day went wrong. You can see the water coming at some force on our right and the lock is obviously through the bridge.

As John got off the boat he'd asked if I'd be OK and I knew I'd be fine getting in but had learnt from the previous lock that I'd need help getting the rope around the bollards to try to hold it steady. As I got into the lock, John was racing around like a headless chicken and the ropes were completely ignored. It turned out that he'd dropped the windlass in the lock and it was a 7'+ depth.
So my first task was to find the other windlass out of the locker and the magnet and get the boat across to the side to put them up for him to get.
Meanwhile I was drifting merrily around the lock, splitting the canvas on the cratch and knocking more paint off any part that came into contact with the lock walls.
Then he lost the magnet off the dog lead he uses to fish with it.
He came to sort out the rope for me and knocked the brush off the roof of the boat. I handed him the boathook, and he managed to retrieve it, phew.
He decided to get the lock sorted out before worrying about the windlass and magnet.
I came out of the lock and checked the inside of the boat. We'd smashed a mug; I had to throw away some stacking glass containers I had as the top one had fallen off and sheared the cork off; the radiator cover had come off (fairly common occurrence actually); the fire irons had tipped over and both the larders had opened as I'd forgotten to put the wedges in.
John meanwhile had used the second windlass to fish out the magnet and eventually he found the first windlass.
All of this took an inordinate amount of time and we were just so pleased that it was a pretty out of the way sort of place and we weren't being gazed at by gongoozelers!
The day improved from then on, thankfully.

Shortly after this we found some very rare moorings next to a pub, the Cunning Man. We had lunch on board and then sat in the pub garden to have a steadying drink. Our poor shattered nerves - and Paddy's - he still appears to hold a grudge about yesterday and is not as keen to get back on the boat as usual. I'm sure he'll come around in time.

This - believe it or not - is a lock. This is what they look like before the sides have been put in and backfilled. We couldn't believe it, talk about health and safety, it's horrific. We had to attach ropes to bits of the structure as it was filling and of course it needed so much more water because all the surrounds had to fill up, rather than just the usual chamber. There were 3 nice young lads sat nearby, and they were chatting to me about narrow boats etc. and I asked them if the lock had been like this for long and they said yes, ages. I just find it incredible that it's just been left like this.

This is how it looked just before it was full, nightmare. Actually just as we were arriving at this lock we saw the first boats coming down that we'd seen since entering the Kennet. They called over that one of the swing bridges further up had been faulty and there was a bit of a backlog of boats coming through now. This explained why all the locks up to then had been against us, but at least the last two were easier.

This is Sheffield Lock and the last one we came through today - another unusual design, it's sort of scalloped. It means that there are lots of worn parts where boats have bashed into it but the water seems to flow easier around the shape and there was less turbulence than normal, although that might just be because it was not very deep.

Just after this we had our first electric swing bridge on this trip. It's quite exciting really as it stops the traffic with lights and the bridge opens to allow our regal entrance. Love it.

Talking of roads, we've come under the M4 - feels very much like we're getting closer to our destination. A good place to thank Valerie and Graham - a meal awaits us at Devises AND help through the Caen Locks if we want it. Wonderful.

This is tonight's mooring - somewhat different from last nights! It's been lovely to be back in summer clothes, but we are fully prepared to be back in fleeces tomorrow. It's just a case of taking each day as it comes. Yes that is John sat topless by the boat, sorry! Someone walking past has told him that the property opposite us used to be owned by Kate Bush, that's enough to ensure he has happy dreams tonight.