Bradford on Avon to Bath

Bradford on Avon to Bath

Well !! what a week we are having !! since leaving Bradford On Avon.

I’ve come to the conclusion the Kennet and Avon is a fabulous canal ..it’s got so many different aspects. Some parts are boring standard canal, narrow and uninspiring, just a water supply from one place to the other to float boats on. Then suddenly it breaks into a beautiful wide or wider river with lovely trees and other things to see and admire.

We have a game we play ‘I wonder what that was’??

So many unusual buildings.

Barns might... have been?? A kiln ?? ...great looking but unusual housing now.

Big factories sympathetically altered into flats or canal-side apartments.

When we were down in London we commented on the amount of wide beam live aboard vessels. Our floating home is 62’ x 7’. Some of the bigger floating homes we are encountering are dwarfing us. The biggest so far 60’ x 12’ the trouble was..

it was on a narrow bridge on a tight 90 degree turn in the waterway over an aqueduct!!,

also there was another one behind. A quick emergency stop and reverse into a quayside on the right hand side. What a great start to a weeks cruising. Friendly people on board, the usual funny quip and quick chat, before we continued on our way to the planned overnight mooring place.

The vessels we are seeing are ranging from 24ft Shetland cruisers up to, well, sea going ships, they are not narrowboats or broadbeams. Dutch barges, are quite popular. some are excellent looking vessels quite capable of going to sea I would think.

Homelessness in the UK is a problem (for our readers in Australia, Canada, USA and Israel) the down and out population are turning to floating homes and the state of some of these is pity-full, but, they are causing lots of problems on the cut.

Some have jobs and need to commute to work, so have stay with in a close area. We call them bridge hoppers. They moor very close to a road bridge and have a car parked nearby. Not a problem most of the time, but not the ones who set up home on the visitor moorings who are a pain!!

Visitor moorings are for a max 48 hours, but some boats haven't moved for a long time by the look of it. We try to get into a place by 2pm. . nothing worse than seeing a holiday boat looking for a night stop at 7pm when you know there ain't any.

We moored at a place called Claverton with a lovely pub and as we had few bob left out of the food budget for the month we had a cheap and cheerful Chef and Brewer meal. Also used some Tesco vouchers which we had accumulated over the last few months. Glad we hadn’t paid in full because.. we weren't impressed the steak was chewy.

Just as we were leaving the next morning there was a woman's voice in the distance.

I thought it was coming from a block of flats. It was a mouthful of profanities. Get off you F***ker...What you doing you ****...sounded as if she was being attacked but it was getting louder. Very confusing. All of a sudden a beaten up old cabin cruiser came around the corner, flat out with a young woman at the controls. She hadn’t a clue where she was (presumably) literally bouncing off the banks and other moored boats. It was as if she was on drugs of some sort. We had a chat with some other people and they were going to inform the authorities, not just for her safety but the safety of others.

We don’t ‘arf’ see life don’t we?? 

We are on our way to Bath and then on to Bristol. We were under the impression we needed extra insurance to navigate the river into Bristol but after checking with other boaters on ‘The Narrow boat Users group’ on Facebook we double checked with our insurance and they/we had got it wrong. (or were trying it on for an extra premium payment)

Thursday evening 23 May found us in the beautiful city of Bath. After a rest we wandered off for a quick look about and a taste of the local ale of course. Making plans we returned to Infinity for a meal, glass if wine and an early night. We were at the city moorings just few minutes walk in the centre. It appears to be the favourite meeting place for the local youngsters on terraced concrete gardens. It was lovely watching them trying to impress the date they had. Some girls were dancing and moving it was quite good I love people watching.

It took me back to when I was a youngster on the street corners of Northampton. Mind you I know its the 21 century but, sorry, in my opinion, its still not right young guys holding hands and kissing each other in public .

Also it not acceptable to practise writing and singing rap songs at 1.30 am out side our boat window. !! . . . .it was rap with a capitol C….CRAP !!

We had a full day in the fabulous city. Acted like tourists apart from one thing. .

we (I hope) weren't rude and pushy like the Chinese and Japanese. Checked out..the Roman ruins, Bath house, Abbey, Shopping….Sausage roll. The Roman ruins are quite interesting using the hand held commentary kit. . it took me a few attempts to sort out how it worked because I’m not good with the technology. Then to end the day the obligatory tour bus with commentary I got that right straight away.

Just pushed the ear pieces in my head and plugged the other end into the hole in the bus bulkhead !!….Hee Hee. 

Opposite where we are moored is a, well what I presume is an old corn store. This is because of the overhead part jutting out made of wood. But they have been restored and turned into flats. Where the lifts were, to unload barges, they have been turned into windows so you can look out over the river / canal.

Just down stream there was a similar building but it has been demolished apart from a great looking archway made of stone. It has a preservation order on it, Jenny, while walking the dogs down by the park, she spoke to a local who was not happy about the redevelopment. It was a beautiful building and according to him the new plans, although modern, he would have preferred the old one(s) being left and converted.

Well we are on the last leg of our run into Bristol leaving Bath we have seen some quite attractive new blocks of flats. Spaces to tie up are a bit on the short side, where we had planned to stay we were very annoyed because when we arrived there was a big boat which was covered in rubbish moored on the visitor mooring right in the middle !!

At the side two ‘undesirables’ standing...sneering as we had slowed down, then revved up to go past. There are a lot of old boats here and how some are still afloat its a wonder.

We started to have a problem...Oh NO !!! ….Infinity has been behaving fantastically since we started. Starting first time, running at right temp and good oil pressure. Using a bit of oil but she is old technology.

But!! all of a sudden, as we joined the last bit of river to go to our last place for the weekend, her engine wouldn’t rev faster than 2000 rpm . ,Oh NO !!

We were in the middle of nowhere, no tow path, in the middle of the river.

If we had to call the canal version of the AA or RAC..RCR..he'd have a long way to walk.

We were running low on drinking water also needed a bog emptying facility so, slowly chugged onto the jetty on the next service area and filled up.

I switched the engine off and we did the jobs. Because of the type of jetty the dogs couldn’t get off the boat, it was a wire walkway with big gaps and their little legs would go though. I made an executive decision ( Jenny does let me make them occasionally).

We would struggle on for a few more mins and try to find a better place so the crew can have a squat and a leg lift.. when I started her up.. guess what !! She ran perfectly. Revving up to 3500 if needed. (only needed in an emergency stop . .full reverse !!) She has taken us to our weekend mooring here at Hanham lock, the last few hours before we arrive at Bristol harbour.

All moored up, good TV signal so I can see the hi-lights of the F1 Grand Prix. When suddenly a boat breaks down outside. What is it ?? a beaten up old cabin cruiser with ….. rather dubious looking skipper.

Ok nodded in greeting.. I try to give everyone a chance. . don’t judge a book by the cover..we will just see what happens.

A few minutes later another narrowboat pulls up in front of us. 6 youngsters 3 girls and 3 lads on board. Bottle of beer or a drink of some sort, all happy and enjoying themselves.

As they moored I quipped. . ‘Are you planning a late night party??. . . with half naked girls running about later!!….too which he answered. . ‘Possibility’

I laughed and said …Wwooooo …...I'll look forward too that !!

We both had a laugh. He thought for a minute I was being serious, then realised I was messing about.

Sadly an hour or so later it turned nasty.

The dubious character, for what reason I don’t know suddenly attacked the young lad who was driving the boat and knocked him down. There is not a lot of room for fighting on a metal jetty over a river.

A load of what looked like ‘new age travellers’ who were in a car park above all came and joined in but...calmed the situation down. Someone wanted to call the police but the skipper, who was by this time throwing his girlfriend off the boat doubting her faithfulness.

Quote. . ‘Don’t call the police, I don’t want to end up inside again’.

If I'd not had an afternoon kip I could perhaps told you why. She (the girl friend) wandered past and off with the travellers..

A bit later the narrow boat moved off to find another mooring. Chatting to the lad who I'd spoken to as they arrived, it was his first day as a narrowboat owner. What a sad start to a wonderful way of life. However the rest of the day passed with no other problems. A very quiet night was enjoyed by all..

Don’t we see life ?? You don’t get this in a care home. Next blog will be from Bristol harbour .. over to Jenny for pictures and Video TTFN