Tuesday, 6 July 2010

72o2 Day 4 - Great Bedwyn - Woolhampton - 21 miles – 30 locks

The route we followed today – as logged by the GPS - is here:

72o2 Day 4 - Great Bedwyn - Woolhampton

A huge ‘full English’ set us up for the day and we were off: Dylan (Bruce and Sue’s boxer) saw us off from the safety of their narrow boat though you have to look closely to see him peering over the side…

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Once again, we’re lucky with wonderful weather, nice and sunny with little wind makes for beautiful conditions

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You see, if I were really artistic, this could be a beautiful ‘biscuit tin lid’ kinda shot

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We came across the same horse drawn narrow boat I’d seen last September and that had planted the seed of an idea about paddling the route.

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You have to look quite closely to see the horse, but look to the left of the picture, you can see its head silhouetted against the opening in the trees.

 

 

 

This next photo is for Alan and Mavis: your daughter may not be in Kintbury at the moment but we still managed to get a cup of tea and a bite to eat… here….

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(the other patrons did think it a bit odd when they saw us wheeling the boat into the car park of the Dundas Arms. 

Birds on a wire…

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Approaching the centre of Newbury…

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we had to top up the kitty; on the way to the bank I looked back to see Nigel. It seems odd that we were largely ignored by passers by… we’re getting closer to the rat race I suppose…

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The historic Marsh lock, one of the very few remaining turf sided locks…

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We’ve passed under lots of swing bridges over the last couple of days and I’ve been trying to get a video of us squeezing underneath but it always seems to have gone wrong, either somebody’s ‘helpfully’ opened it or the following’s happened….

 

Anyway, we were all obviously tired as we didn’t even think about opening the bridge!

but at last I got what I wanted… here you go…

How flat is that water…

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destroyed by Colin’s paddling of course…

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And finally, a well earned rest at the Falmouth Arms pub in Woolhampton (managed by Luscious Laura!). The rest was much needed after crossing the busy A4 en route!

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