We left Sells Green in lovely sunshine this morning and hardly a breath of wind. It had obviously been cold overnight, but the dew was soon burnt off by the heat of the sun. Ali's endeavour to clean the side of the boat the previous evening was obliterated when CRT contractors turned up just after 8:00 am, mowed the grass, strimmed down the side of Triskaideka leaving a lovely green grass coating to the starboard side of the boat. They then improved on this by using a garden blower to remove the grass cuttings from the towpath. As we are all aware CRT purchase a special type of mini gravel for towpaths which is extremely fine and dusty, due to the lack of rain, clouds of this dust descended all over the boat, deep joy. Anyway off we went enjoying the green and pleasant land around us. Our first exercise of the day was three swing bridges, swiftly followed by a few locks, just for good measure, in order that we could keep our hand in for our return trip up Caen Hill flight.
There did appear to be some nice moorings along this area particularly around Seend Cleeve for our return journey.
As the title suggests we seemed to spend an age on tick over passing miles and miles of moored boats. We stopped at Hilperton Wharf for fuel and gained some valuable information on mooring on the River Avon. We are still in two minds whether to continue past Bath to Bristol but the general consensus seems to be 'you have come this far, you should do it!'
We have moored in Bradford on Avon at the side of the Tithe Barn. This town is extremely pretty with some fine stone buildings and with the river Avon passing through the middle. Tomorrow we head for Bath and make a decision!
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| Tithe Barn |
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| and the inside |
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| Bradford upon Avon |
8.5 miles 8 locks 6 swing bridges
You must go all the way to Bristol, the floating pontoons you moor on in the harbour are very secure with electric as well!! Its about £45 for 48 hours but well worth it, Such a great city and you are right in the centre. Its a nice stretch of river along the Avon with some nice places to moor along the way. Enjoy!
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ReplyDeleteThis is Keith Yeandel owner of nb Fruit of The Vine built by Beacon Boats in 2010.
I am a CART volunteer lockeeper on the Bath flight.
If you intend dropping down the flight this Thursday I would be delighted to assist you.
Hi Doug, James and Keith. Ali and I are going for it so will descend the Bath flight this morning. Look forward to meeting you Keith. May be late morning as we are a tad hung over!
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