Day 1: Hiking along the Kennet-Avon Canal, 9 miles to Thatcham
She Said:
Dinner update from last night - excellent venison pie, salads, and sticky toffee cake for dessert. The Bull Inn serves great pub food.
This morning, our taxi dropped us at Sheffield Bottom (Sheffield Lock) and we officially began our Kennet and Avon Canal walk. Perfect weather for walking - thin high clouds blocking most of the sun, a slight breeze and 75 degrees.
At the very start (literally - 5' into the path) a guy on a collapsible bike rode by and stopped to talk to us. He was riding the canal but had done many long distance walks in England so we all had plenty to talk about. He got a kick out of us having our luggage moved forward each day and us staying in Inns and B+B's each night. In his day, he said mostly everyone either camped or stayed in hostels and his average walking mileage per day was 25 miles. Old timer Brits are a tough lot.
Walking or biking or even canal boating makes for shared camaraderie on the canal path and we had many pleasant and interesting conversations with fellow travelers today.
The very first canal boat that was tied up near the lock was beautifully hand painted with scenes of Knights in shining armor and magical Merlin. It (and many other canal boats that are used as homes in addition to being leisure vehicles) was fitted out with a few solar panels on the roof. And, truth be told, many of the boats that had the distinct look of permanent housing also looked as though they were inhabited by classic "off the grid" types -the boats were a bit scruffy around the edges and in need of some TLC.
Different from the boats owned by retirees determined to live, at least for a few to several weeks a year, in the slow lane (canal boating is definitely a slow-paced leisure lifestyle). Their boats were freshly painted and tricked out with colorful flower pots on the roofs and tidy decks and lace curtains or wood blinds covering the windows. Kind of like cute little floating cottages.
And, most canal boaters have their pets with them - dogs and cats. We met a particularly friendly cat this morning with the most striking markings - brown and black tiger stripes. Stunning.
At each lock, situated close off to the side in the adjacent field, is a WWII pillbox. There was an expectation (fear?) that the Germans might sail up the rivers and canals in England and attack from that angle. We have seen pillboxes along other rivers (the Thames, obviously) but these seem spookier somehow - silent, vine covered - easy to imagine a freaked out 17 year old inside, peering out the narrow window slits, keeping watch.
Once again, kites overhead gracefully gliding and hunting.
We watched two white feral-looking cats on the opposite side of the canal from us hunting at the edge of the canal. For what? We walked on a few feet and saw plenty of fish swimming around, so maybe easy pickings for them.
There was a stretch along the canal where we just weren't seeing any canal boats, which is very unusual. The Kennet and Avon is a very popular holiday canal. A passerby told us that a lock was broken up the canal and might not be fixed for a couple of weeks. When we arrived at that lock, there were some boat owners and canal officials hanging around the lock discussing the situation (grim) and speculating on a fix (grimmer). The officials were waiting for their underwater crew to come and assess the damage below. The boaters were concerned as there really was no way around. And, there were 14 (!) canal boats tied up in a line at the lock, waiting.
This was about as dramatic as our day was going to get, so we found a bench and ate our lunch watching and listening to the stories. The lock had been broken 2 days ago by boaters who were "crazy drunk and rammed one of the lock gates." It might not be fixed for "a week", "a month"! "We might be able to get out in reverse but that's a long way in reverse". "Maybe we can get towed backwards".
We continued on our way, under our own, self-contained power.
Further on, there was a huge quarry along one side of the canal and a giant construction company along the other side of the canal. I mean, big. Probably both went on for a mile or so.
Then, a series of old factories repurposed for use by small businesses - furniture making, electronics, upholstery and decorating. Nice to see people building and creating.
We arrived at The Swan in Thatcham, hit the grocery store for salad fixings, did some essential laundry in the sink (ha!) and are now settled in for a lazy, rainy (yes, and it is supposed to rain tomorrow all day) evening of watching TV. Heavenly.
He said:
The first day of a long walk is always the wake up call to the feet. How sore will they feel by the end of the day? The good news is that a canal walk is going to be flat and level, and this path is flat for sure. There is the promise of rain in the afternoon, but the weather for us is simply muggy and warm, with a slight tail wind. The day being a Monday, the weekend throngs of people we saw along the river Thames are gone, and the few people we talked to along the path were generally retired and now moving their canal boats a few miles a day, it's the slow life in the slow lane for them, and they like it. The only excitement they have is dealing with the locks and swing bridges on the canal, they must be controlled manually by each boat captain/guy/gal. Sometimes things go wrong, and the locks get damaged as we saw today. That damage made the lock unusable and all boats going up or down the canal must wait until it's repaired; they have no room to turn around.
the broken lock
I'm thinking about having another Guinness, like I had last night.
For more photos from May 9 click here
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