What do you think about being back on a canal?
We didn't time it very well, the last 15 minutes we were in the dark
Welcome to Cruising Alba! We invite you to join us on our adventure
living off-grid and travelling the UK canal network I'm Myles and I'm Marina
In the last episode we had a dramatic escape
from the flooding Thames into the safety of the Kennet and Avon canal
The saga of the broken shower pump continues. We enjoyed having showers for a couple of luxurious
weeks okay it's broken
It's really exciting to be going for a long cruise again
We were looking forward to the weekend and the weather didn't disappoint
The sun is quite low in the sky though we can hardly see ahead
as we're heading directly West
We're sharing the first lock with a single-handed boater
He also just got off the Thames
We bonded over our stories of escaping the flooding and general Thames experiences
yeah we've been on the Thames all summer
We are grateful for sharing locks today we keep swapping and either leaving first and setting up
the lock ahead or staying last and closing the gates such an interesting team working system
i was trying to think of a comparison but i have to say it's pretty unique
After spending months on a river being back on the canal took some time getting used to
How's it feel being back on the canal? Strange I have to say it's not... I didn't exhale.
I exhaled for a day because we got off the flooding bit but I need a few days to get used to it
it's a lot narrower than the river and slower
Yeah but obviously more locks and stuff I need a couple more days
What do you think about being back on a canal? Now it's winter i feel a bit
more secure knowing that we can stay somewhere for two weeks and you know it's a canal but we
still are on the kennet... well the kennet part of the Kennet and Avon, it's nice feels a bit
more secure i feel like you're closer to people with the towpath being so close yeah it's nice
As we are fully into fire-making season I have adjusted my morning routine
since the shower pump is broken yet again I'm improvising
I'm going to wash my hair and catch all of the water into a tub
I'm practicing calligraphy today because i'm about
to start working on the next set of thank you cards for our patrons
Today is a little bit backwards I have a lot of things to do but i'm not feeling
very well so I can't do any of them. The main thing you need to do is go back to Reading and
return a few parcels. We haven't been very lucky getting stuff delivered here: A it's
really difficult to get stuff to the boat anyway, but B everything we've been buying lately is
malfunctioning, broken, broke after a week even if I'm buying quality stuff
I bought a lens attachment for my camera and it doesn't work, Bluetooth headphones that i bought
a month ago stopped charging and that's a third pair of Bluetooth headphones that I bought
in the last two months that broke, we bought a projector for the boat a USB charger one
and it doesn't connect to wi-fi. I just need to return everything and get a new water pump again
I found a zero waste shop as well in town center so I'm hoping to go there and stock up on
some dry supplies I'm really really excited I love zero waste shops
I used to do it a lot more often in London because I knew where they were
We are setting off today with a final destination being Newbury
as it gets back early now it's going to take us two days of cruising
(music)
Looks like someone is coming down the lock so we're just waiting here for them to come down
and we don't need to set it up
Nairns. I have mine with hummus, cheese mayo and sun-dried tomatoes
The lock seems pretty vicious on the K&A so we take our time and open the puddle slowly
they also seem quite deep and not very long
(music)
Toasty
We're in Woolhampton, didn't time it very well the last 15 minutes we were in the dark but
we're now safe moored up in town center we're going out for dinner as it is Saturday night
Wow this is just so magical
I love the fog and the sun is just
rising so we're here at Woolhampton near not far from the Row Barge
which we went for dinner at last night, which was really nice so today
is our goal halfway through this page so we reckon i've got an hour to get here, three locks
on this page and then we're just gonna chug along another lock, another lock at that... eight locks
till we get to Newbury town center this is where the Kennet river actually joins the canal
and it looks like rain over the next few days so I think if we can get just out of Newbury would
be perfect. But there's a Sainsbury's how excited are you? Amazing! Some plant power! That was scary!
We shared the locks for the first half of the day with this newbie boaters
and the crew of four swapping the lock gate closings and opening swing bridges
This is a monkey marsh lock, it's a turf-sided lock one of the two remaining on the canal system
there used to be 17 of them on K&A as turf- sided locks required less engineering to create after
the canal restoration most of these locks were converted into the locks that we're used to today
We just stopped for lunch we're halfway through our journey today five more locks and we are
going to be on the other side of Newbury and we are aiming to get today but we had an incident
while in the lock the dinghy had a little bit of a crunch. I opened the lock the boat went back
and I was holding the centre line but it went back too far and it just went, it didn't sound good so I
think there's a crack in the fiberglass, we'll take the engine off it'll be fine everything's fine
The Kennet and Avon canal was completed in the beginning of 1800s as the 57-mile stretch
between Bath and Newbury connecting two rivers built as a commercial transport route the Kennet
and Avon canal transformed Bath providing safe and efficient travel between London and Bath and
via river Avon to Bristol. During 18th and 19th century there wasn't a safe trading route between
Bath and London. The famous Bath stone was in demand and Bath needed coal and other goods
to support its industry. The options were to transport by sailboat which was dangerous due
to war with France and rough weather conditions the other means of transport was horse and cart
but they couldn't carry anywhere near as much cargo as ships could
Wrong side
Locks on Kennet and Avon are a little bit different to Grand Union and Oxford canal well Oxford canal
has narrow locks but even the way you access it is different and instead of a little step
platform as you get on Grand Union canal here you've got a little place to put your toes in
We're seeing more and more boats now Newbury is just around the corner
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