Great Bedwyn

Greg decided at 9 am this morning that he was going to make biscuits-I must admit they tasted lovely (there doesn't seem many left!!!). We then walked down to the church at Great Bedwyn.

 

 

 

The village shop was next to the old stone masons yard which unfortunately closed down about 5 years ago. There were lots of memorials all over the walls but I didn't see the fossilised footprint of a dinosaur.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Little Bedwyn has the railway running straight through the middle of it.

 

 

 

 

 

These are just so gorgeous.....

 

This lock has got a swing bridge in the middle, while I was waiting for the lock to fill I started talking to a man who was walking to North Devon. He'd lived on a boat for 12 years ,went around Britain in a campervan for 3 years and was now walking from Oxford to Devon with his dog.

 

We moored up at Hungerford and went for a look around the shops...(Greg tried telling me there wasn't any shops there....I don't think he was looking very well myself!!). The plan is to set off early tomorrow and get to Newbury for lunchtime as Greg has heard there is a pub there that serves pie and mash ( apparently they do every pie imaginable...).

Happy days.

 

 

 

The crayfish.

It was a damp and drizzly morning today, you could only just see the hills in the distance.

This heron was sitting on top of a tree looking for his breakfast.

 

The mini suspension bridge.

As we came through the locks at Wootton Rivers we noticed that the water levels were really low again and that there was no chance of any mooring. When we got to the Crofton pumping station we found lots of boats moored up after being told by CRT that they couldn't go any further because of low water levels....it might have been an idea for them to tell us this fact as we were coming down not having a clue what was going on!! They had been told that if they hadn't heard from anyone by tonight then to stay put and go for breakfast at the pumping station tomorrow morning....Needless to say there was a lot of cross people waiting!!

A crayfish hiding in a hole...

Just after we moored up 4 apache helicopters flew over the boat.

Happy days.

 

 

 

 

Off up the hill again......

Bristol was brilliant, we took a final picture of our mooring and set off which to be fair was easier than I thought it would be-once we had reversed out of the little harbour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The very first lock back....

For a day that started so well it soon went down hill...It started with the small day hire boat who pulled out in front of us and then chugged at tick over speed all the way to Bradford -On -Avon, who then pulled into a café near the lock and all went to get burgers. I walked up to the lock keeper to tell him we were waiting at the bottom only to find that as the lock opened they jumped back on their boat and shot off up to the lock gates. They obviously thought they were going in the lock by themselves (forget about the other 3 boats behind) and stopped in the middle. Their faces were a picture as they realised we were coming in as well and it then took them 15 minutes to manouver  the boat so we could get in ...needless to say the lock keeper wasn't impressed.

Tithe Barn at Bradford on Avon.

 

 

We carried on meeting several daft hire boaters, some who thought it a good idea to moor in the lock operating areas, another who came in the lock with us...and when they went out tried to pick up his crew in the reeds....he was still trying to get them on 20 minutes later.

Today we started early because we wanted to be at the bottom of the locks at 8. We were met by another hire boat-who were fantastic. There were four of them on board so we soon got to the top. They were all from Macclesfield and had hired the boat from the bottom of the locks...they were a bit upset that we weren't going to be going down with them again on Thursday- Greg said not a chance. We said our goodbyes and promised to look out for them when we head up to Macclesfield in a few weeks time.

The kingfishers nest inside the pipe.

 

 

 

 

 

Happy days.