Wednesday 23 April 2014

Hungerford and beyond

We arrived in Hungerford just before the first kayak. I later found out that the start of the race was delayed because of an unfortunate incident in Devizes,
 The first kayak through Hungerford. Running past us to 'portage' past Hungerford Town Lock. As time went on the number of kayaks per minute increased to we went for a walk around the town...
 past Hungerford Wharf and then up the main street, on the lookout for a nice pub or restaurant for our evening meal.
We decided to make an early start on Saturday morning to get ahead of any remaining kayaks and moved on towards Kintbury. I had to walk back to Hungerford to fetch the car and noticed several breaches of the bank. I foresee a problem!
Breached towpath bank between Kintbury & Hungerford

Good Friday in Great Bedwyn

Spending Good Friday morning in or very close to Great Bedwyn is a must. The village bakery makes the best hot cross buns for miles around. Having bought a couple of dozen to see me through the next couple of days it was time to move on.
Even though the tide was very high we are touching the bottom and listing well. This makes for a very uncomfortable nights sleep. With the approaching kayaks on the Devizes to Westminster race it was time to move on to Hungerford.
There are now by-wash channels for each of the locks. This means that the canal is not losing water to the river system and that all the tide levels are high.