Day trip to Reading

We had seen the weather forecast and it was dry and sunny so thought we would use the time to go into Reading.. We needed a new lamp shade for the saloon as everything is now getting on for eleven years old.. We got the train from Thatcham and then got the bus to a shopping park on the outskirts. We had phoned ahead and knew they had what we wanted in stock and got one held for us to pick up.. We had a cheeky coffee at Costa before we did that, and then got the bus back into Reading.

We did a bit of shopping in town, and Del brought a couple of shirts and we needed a new throw for the bed, but didn't find what we wanted..
We then went to the cinema and watched the 2.00pm showing of Toy Story 4! We are big kids at heart! Al loved it and Del thought it was ok. Woody made a few new friends!

Afterwards we grabbed a bite to eat at Mission Burrito and then grabbed a couple of cocktails over at The Beach Bar..

We then did some quick food shopping and headed back to the station to Derwent6..  We sat out in the cratch till late evening looking forward to moving on tomorrow..

This 1730 canal

It was a smoke on the water morning and we left at 7.00am to get to the first lock.

It was a lovely temperature and a good cruising day.

The next locks are in quick succession.

We then approached Newbury and this time had no problems through the swingbridge..

We then did the lock in the centre of town and it was the first lock on the K and A back in 1730.

It was then back out in the countryside and things feel so tranquil and relaxed again.

With some tricky swingbridges and difficult locks we reached Thatcham.

There was loads of moorings at the station and we picked the one furthest away from the traffic. As we were mooring we could smell a stench coming from the dog bin area.. If you look closely at this picture you will see why!

It looked like a boater thought it was ok to get rid of their rubbish by leaving it alongside a dog poo bin.

Also dog walkers then thought it was alright to put their dog poo bags in the black bag. The foxes loved this and pulled the whole lot out and spread it over the towpath. Poo and rubbish were everywhere.
Del put on his latex gloves and cleared it all up and took the rubbish to the train station bin.. Now its all nice for people to look at again.

We set up telly and watched the tennis all afternoon, a real treat!

Sadly turning round :-(

Decision made! Sadly, we were turning back this morning. It was a hard decision as we don't normally let things like this get in the way, but if we could save water for someone who needs it more than we do, then its got to be a good thing.. To add to the misery, we had this message from CaRT.

We spun round in the winding hole at Kintbury, and couldn't get on the waterpoint because of some boats that moored on there late last night..

We can't complain because we had overstayed our mooring by half a day due to the fact we couldn't make our minds up as to what to do.
Our hose just reached from the lock moorings as we also waited to see if we could link up with someone else going in our direction.

The tank reached full and no one turned up so we went through on our own and a wide beam followed us..
It is very pretty through this section back towards Newbury and it was all so much easier going down the locks. Even the gates were opening fully, but you did have to watch the cill on the way down.. This fella was keeping out of the way..

We got to March Benham and in the distance could see our lovely mooring was free again. We couldn't resist it and tucked Derwent6 into the spot made for us.. Tooty likes it here as he isn't bothered by people that much.

 We had some brunch and then set to work on cleaning Derwent6 as it had been neglected over the last few days.. Taking the dust off and some spit and polish was the order of the day, and it took all day.. Al got the washing line out and did some washing, again all done free with solar power.
We plan an early start tomorrow so we chilled in the evening after Al had cooked a lovely steak and salad to keep us going..

Weekend of Fun

We were up early and trying to sort out how we could get round this problem at Crofton pumping station.. They were letting boats through today (Friday) but it was only for five hours, and that was only if the water levels held out.. Also there were problems with water at the Caen hill flight at Devizes.. We didn't think our problem would be getting over the summit and down the flight at Devizes, but getting back, as there was not much rain forecast.. Thinking time was required!

We had arranged to meet Terry (Del's stepmum) in London as it was her birthday today, so we used the train as the station was so close. This took us straight into Paddington and we met in Covent Garden. Drinks were soon flowing and this warmed us up for food.

We went to one of Terry's favourite places for lunch, The Ivy Market Grill which was close by, and we have to say the food was amazing.. We then had a walkabout and ended up first in TGI's for cocktails and then to Soho for drinks in the old pubs there..

Al was going back to Derwent6 and it turned out the train times were all over the place so at 9pm we decided to split.. Del was going back to Kent as he was going to a radio controlled model show with the boys on Saturday.
Del was picked up by Hannah and taken back to his mate Bernie's.. As it was late it was straight to bed..
Al managed to get back after a few problems with trains to Kintbury, but all was well in the end.. It had been a really lovely day!
Del was up at the crack of dawn as Steve was picking us both up at 6.30am to miss the tunnel traffic. We were up there nice and early and this gave us time to have a good fry up breakfast before we went in.... We had a great time, but it gave us the urge to fly as it was such a lovely warm day.

We got back to Kent after sitting in traffic for a while and got our models ready to fly over at Holly Hill..
Steve and Erica had kindly offered to do a BBQ later in the evening so late afternoon we went flying.

Afterwards it was back to the BBQ and Steve was on it straight away..

Company was fab, food was fab, and the evening was just fab.... Only thing missing was Al..

Al was having a ball with Derwent6 all to herself. Things are much easier now we don't have to think about the batteries and Del can even check them from his phone.. Al kept busy with reading in the sunshine, watching films, and even gaming..  She also had Tooty to keep her company.
Del got the early train back and was back on Derwent6 by 10.30am where we had a good catch up..
The bad news is that we feel we have to turn around with these water levels so low.. Everyone who had been down to the bottom of the summit said things weren't good, and we had good feedback as Al met up with Neil and Pauline on n.b Waterlily..

So we are sad to say we will be spinning round tomorrow and making our way back.
A big thank you to everyone who we had fun with over the weekend we are so lucky to be able to do all this..

Short trip to Kintbury

We left one of our favourite moorings at Marsh Benham and headed through the first lock.

Again it was just take things slowly as these locks will bite you if you want to rush them.

Then there are another two locks which are walkable and we got through them ok..

The last lock of the day was at Kintbury and the water point had a wide beam on it, so we waited while they filled with water and did their pumpout .

We then filled Derwent6 as she was getting a bit thirsty.

It turned out there were a few moorings and we grabbed the first one we saw not thinking about getting a telly signal. We struggled and then noticed a boat was going off in front of us.. We pulled Derwent6 forward a tad and hey presto, we got a signal..

So we were now sorted and had plans for the rest of the day, as there was a great pub with a wood burning pizza grill we liked and they were on offer today at £6.00 each. It was only a short walk in the sunshine and we soon had a beer in our hands with a freshly cooked pizza in front of us..

We stayed till sunset and then wandered back to Derwent6 and with full tummies were ready for bed. (We also received a message saying that the problems on the summit at Crofton were still quite bad)..

What a plank!

We set off with apprehension as we had heard that the Crofton pump had failed and we couldn't get over the summit on the Kennet and Avon canal..  Tony on n.b Maria was on his own and only wanted to do a couple of difficult locks and a swingbridge, which was also hard to open.

So he set off with us and we went in the locks with him..

It made things a bit easier and he was also right about the swingbridge, which Del had to help close. We said our goodbyes to Tony and carried on our own as no other boats were around..

This meant we just had to take our time and it was one paddle time.

We reached Bull's Lock where we knew there was a big Tesco's. Derwent6 was pushed into the overgrown sides and we made a temporary mooring while Al did the shopping..

When she got back Del walked to B and Q and picked up a new plank as we had never bought one and the one we had (that was a find about 10 years ago) was going a bit rotten..
We then carried on through the town of Newbury and it was lunchtime so it was a bit busy..

The moorings here were very quiet but we decided not to stop and carried on out the other side, but first we had the swingbridge to contend with..
It's electric, and Al put the key in and pushed the button.. The barriers went down and then the bridge opened, but so slowly. People were waiting to cross and Del managed to squeeze through so Al could close it quicker, but the barriers wouldn't go up.. After a lot of resetting and people getting agitated, Al managed to get it to complete its sequence and we managed to move on..

Again the locks are quite tricky here, but slow is the easy way if you're on your own..

The canal is very pretty here and has some tight sections to navigate.

We got to Benham Lock and found a nice spot by a weir which we thought would be a safe spot if we got those storms which were predicted..

When we moored we checked the CaRT website to find out that the canal was still closed at Crofton and over the summit.. It also told us that the electric pump was going to be removed tomorrow and investigated as to what the problem was. It also said it was still closed and they might be letting boats through, maybe over the weekend for a few hours, as the water levels were so low..  Lets hope we get loads of rain tonight!!!!!