Our canal boat needed to be picked up early on Friday afternoon so Wayne and Fiona very kindly dropped us down to Aldermaston Wharf. After a quick briefing and instruction on how to pass through a lock, we were on our way. Unfortunately the very first lock – at Woolhampton – is the trickiest one on the canal, involving a swing bridge that stops traffic, a narrow channel, a side current, a sweeping curve and dodging other moored boats. The worst part though is that it’s very public and you’ve always got an audience and canal boats handle like supermarket trolleys! We survived it without hitting anything though, so settled in for our first night afloat fealing reasonably chuffed.
Saturday was cool and clear and we headed off for Newbury. Our body clocks were still messed up so we were up pretty early again, which worked out fine because we got a head start on other boats and found all the locks empty as we headed upstream, a real time-saver. We got to Newbury at about three and explored the streets and discovered a good place to moor for the night, just a few meters from an olde English pub called “Lock, Stock and Barrel”.
Mark
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