Here, there is a wonderful pumping station which houses a 1812 Bolton and Watt beam engine, one of the oldest in the country, still working. But it was a shame it wasn't working today, as we found out by BW at the next lock that the modern pump had stopped and the water on the summit was very low.
From Reading we had been slowly going up hill every mile or so and when you get to the 1810 Bruce's tunnel you go through the top of the hill. 
The water here was at least two feet down on it's normal levels and even on tickover, Derwent6 was scraping the bottom in places, but we made it through. Phew!!! 
From here it is all downhill as we went through the locks at Wootten Rivers. We departed from our locking partners here and carried on to Pewsey where we could see the Vale of the Horse up on the hillside, a nice place to moor we thought. It was still quite shallow, but we managed to get the bow in and left the stern sticking out a bit.
We then went for a walk into Pewsey and checked out all the pubs to see if anything was going on. 
It was a shame to see that The Greyhound had closed and not much was going on in this nice little town . We did a circular walk coming back, via bridge 113 to Derwent6.
We had dinner in the cratch admiring the views of the Vale in the sunshine.
4 comments:
Hi both - your blog is bringing back fond memories of our cruise last year - looks like you are enjoying yourselves - make sure you go right to the end and moor in Bristol's floating harbour.
Pip & Rog xxx
looks like you could do with a mini phase with a slope like that.
Steve
Hi Pip & Rog
We're really enjoying the K&A and yep the plan is to go all the way to Bristol. Hope you're enjoying all this lovely weather and cruising again. Take care x
Yes mate, I could have done with one of those!
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