Hi All,
Wednesday 17th September 2008 Another early start, the alarm going off at 7am. Regular visitors to this pub will know Wendy and I don't to early starts, but hey ho, needs must. Wendy decides she will steer as she feels the locks gates will be too heavy for her. I agree. Out comes the bike, tyres fully pumped up and we stet off at 8.10. We are on our own and the first lock is against us but we soon spy another boat at the top lock, in this first set of 3 coming down. Good! The gates are indeed heavy, some of them will not stay open, others will not stay closed. All the paddles are stiff. Then of course there are the bywashes, some in full flow others without a drop. Can it be that difficult to adjust the levels to give good even flow of water down the flight? Has there been no investment on this canal in the last 10 years?. No, not a bit of it. Beautiful new wooden bollards grace almost every lock. 3 of them standing guard over the water. Worth every penny of the thousands BW must have spent on them. I really am at a loss why some people have been complaining about them. Don't these people realise how useful they are? Not too boaters perhaps but they must be useful for something, why else would BW spend all that money when it could be used on the lock gates and paddles? Mind you, they are spending some money on that. A sign on lock 50 informs us that between 4pm and midnight 17th and 18th September Locks 46,27, 22 and 23 will be shut for maintenance. As we progress up the locks we are joined by boats from behind and in front. I am not sure having another boat coming down in front is always a good thing. Wendy and I have built up a system over the years on lock flights with close together locks. Waiting for others can delay passage. The weather is dry and overcast but quite warm, especially zooming about on the bike. I am joined briefly by Betty Swollocks but she soon disappears down the towpath. No doubt off to meet her chum Norma Snockers, who I have seen once or twice on this trip already. No doubt I will bump into her again soon. The first set of locks finishes with lock 40. The bike is stowed on board ready for the next set and Wendy steers while I play with the laptop doing the odd trip report and testing the dongle on the move which proves unsuccessful in the email sending and receiving function. Not long after I write this I have to eat my BW words. More later. Regards Andrew & Wendy - Tales From The River [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
