It has been a long time coming but we're finally ready to set off on our summer trip. This year we decided to have three weeks together instead of two so that we could reach more distant parts of the system. We had the Kennet and Avon Canal in mind, thinking three weeks could get us as far as Devizes. As the time got closer, more and more bad news arrived about water shortages. Firstly the locks up to the Oxford Canal summit were limited to nine am to four pm, then it was down to 10 am to two pm, with BW staff around to encourage you to wait for a boat coming the other way for up to an hour if the lock was in their favour. So that had us thinking about alternatives. Then the riots, and their impact on boaters in cities added a further complication about which way we'd go based on where we'd be happy to moor if that recurred.
Other time restrictions and stoppages have been added, meaning slow passage on the North Oxford through Hilmorton, and the Leicester Arm seems particularly bad. So in the end we seem to have decided not to decide, just head north on the Grand Union and play it by ear. One idea is to go down towards Worcester and see the newly reopened Droitwich Canal then round to the north of Birmingham, depending on what else is in the news by the time we get there. Someone mentioned to me Chris Clegg's Canal Map, which on one side of A4 maps the system in two hour increments, and on the other side shows how far you are likely to get in 6, 8, or 10 hour days of cruising. Having said that I think we must cruise a bit slower than some as we only seemed to do what the map suggests is a six hour trip in some of our 8-10 hour days last year on the Thames Ring. That should make looking at the options a bit easier as we travel.
What with one thing and another we've lost a day as some last minute work things got in the way of travelling yesterday, and we had a particularly slow trip today. Still, here we are, boat filled with fuel and water, weedhatch checked, and ready to go in the morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment