Newbury to Kintbury

We had to force ourselves to leave Newbury today, it was turning into another Paddo!  Before we left we took another walk into Newbury with the boys, where I bought a couple of shirts from one of the charity shops ... nice class of charity shop down these southern parts - the northern charity shops are OK but how many donkey jackets and flat caps do you need?!

Back to the good ship where these two moorhens were having a little dance next to the boat ...



Off we went passing this boat with a real lawn on the roof ... how??

There were some really nice lock settings along the way.  We were following a nice couple up the locks in a wide beam, once again roping it up when in the locks .... where was it going to go?

Another nice setting.  I am enjoying the K and A but El is not enjoying it as much ... too many locks and swing bridges, she reckons.

Where's the boat?

Red Admiral?

And yet another nice lock setting.  Not a lot happened today so I am padding it out ... suppose I could mention that we did 2 loads of washing, ran the drier, had 2 cups of coffee and one cup of tea plus Elaine had the very pleasant job of changing the kitty litter!

So a rest was needed on a beam with her lock buddy ...

Look another nice lock setting, this time in panavision!

We intended pushing on the Hungerford but fagged out at Kintbury where we stopped and emptied the very full cassettes of nastiness, got rid of a few days of rubbish that was getting very pongy on the roof plus filled the water tank.


Just in front of the water point the Hotel Boat 'Wessex Rose' was about to leave so I went to check it out quickly!  It is a most impressive bit of kit - he reversed off to the winding hole with his bow and stern thrusters working away ...very nice.

Poor little Sammie has cut his paw, so nurse Elaine sorted it out and told him to rest and elevate it for the rest of the day...

No probs he replied ...

Have a good weekend peoples xx

Newbury The Perfect Market Town

Newbury seemed such a lovely town, we thought we would stay put for the day and have a look around.

Before that Liam and myself took the dogs for a walk, we were watching this boat go up through the lock and once again they had the boat tied in, engine switched off and his Mrs opening one paddle but only ever so slightly, it was going to take hours to fill so we walked off, we hadn't got far when we heard the old boy screaming, Oh Jesus, oh Jesus, Christ no etc, they had their grand kids with them, we thought one of them had fallen in, we went back to check to see what had happened......the scene was shocking....the bow rope had come off the bollard!!!!!! The old boy was going off his rocker...Is it a K and A thing all these ropes and turning the engine off etc, I use a centre rope when I  jump off and give Elaine a hand, but that is about it.

I felt so sorry for the grand kids, they didn't look happy being out with grandad and grandma. When they got to the swing bridge the old duck wouldn't keep the swing bridge open for another boat she wanted to shut it and let them use their key, she relented in the end, some strange boat people down these parts.

We took the the dogs back to the boat, grabbed El and went out for a bit of retail therapy, we just love the way they have preserved the town centre, the big retail shops are there, but they are up small lanes just outside the town centre, all in easy walking distance.

The fish van was in the market square.

So was the butchers truck

This butcher sold the best snags I have tasted since being in the UK 

The town centre opens to traffic after 17.00, it works really well.

And the retail therapy?  Elaine bought a dress and cardie..

I bought a pair of shorts because this summer will never end....love it. I also bought a belt just in case I lose weight and the shorts end up around my ankles, a shirt finished the spree off.

Nice waterfront dog friendly pub 

We can thoroughly recommend Newbury, in our humble opinion its the best market town we have been to in our 15 months here on the great adventure. 

We also popped into Hamptons International estate agents to enquire about.......

Newbury's Nice

Liam and myself went off train spotting with the dogs this morning, leaving Elaine on the boat.  When we got back Elaine was sitting on the towpath hanging onto the anchor rope! Apparently the boat in front had left and in the process untied our bow rope, so our boat had drifted across the canal.  Elaine managed to get it back to the towpath but the bow rope had got caught around an anode.  She managed to grab the anchor rope and was sitting there patiently waiting for us to return.


Once we got that sorted we were off.    The first lock of the day, a turf sided lock.



Liam steered for most of the day whilst we chilled ...

Spot the weir warning sign ...

Very quiet cruising, with very few boat movements.

It was a very warm day even the boat buckled ...

We shared a lock with Nev's old boat ... the kid steering it was 8 years old, he was better than most adults!

As we approached the outskirts of Newbury we spotted a Tesco store through the bushes.  Magic ... we were getting a bit low, especially on the cat litter front.  We filled two trolleys, one with 100kgs of cat litter!


We could even got the trolleys right next to the boat - better still, you don't have to take them back to the store, you just chuck then straight into the canal.

Tesco is through the gap in the trees just to the west of bridge 50 at Newbury.

We were held up by about 45 mins at the next lock as one boat had no steering so he was being moved to a dry dock by another boat, which blew off a hose in the lock and overheated.  No probs, all in a day's boating.

So into Newbury ...

We had shared a couple of locks with this boat - another one that insisted on tying his boat up in the lock, plus his missus told Elaine that you should only open one paddle - and not all the way at that....should take them about 2 years to get to Bath!

We spotted our Aussie friends from yesterday in this pub as we passed by, so we moored up and joined them for a couple of pints and a good chat.

In the evening we went for a walk around Newbury, also popping into the local 'spoons for dinner.  We enjoyed Newbury so much that we are going to stay the night and have a good look around the shops etc tomorrow.


On the way back to the boat we spotted this boat, all I could think of was 'Cadleys Flake' ...

This chap a bit furthur up was having a barbie, now would you like your meat smoked......or......

Cremated!