We are still chugging along the K&A, but now westwards. Weds 18 Aug Moored between Locks 57 and 58 - 6 mi, 4 fl - 16 locks Start 08:30, moored up at 17:20 Waterscrape was advertising stoppages at Picketfield Lock [71] from 12:00 to 16:00 and at Little Bedwyn Lock [67] from 08:00 to 12:00. More importantly, Crofton Bottom Lock [60] was scheduled to close all day on Thursday - something that the BW e-mail update had somehow ignored, so we needed to get beyond that. We made it past Picketfield OK, in company with nb Moonflower, and fetched up below Little Bedwyn just after 11. There was much activity - 2 divers, + shore crew + BW guys and lots of kit. It seemed that the idea was to get a remote controlled submersible cutting device into the o/s ground paddle culvert to saw out a blockage. We reverted to gender stereotypes - I gawped and took pictures while Lynne made them all cups of tea. By 2pm they'd decided that the cutting device was too big for the culvert so the queuing boats were let through. We then ambled up to get beyond the Crofton stoppage. Intially we thought to moor on the summit, but the sight of our friends from Oz on nb Simple Bliss Two on the Crofton VMs caused us to stop a little further on so that we could walk back and do justice to some of Scotland's finest.
No useable Vodafone signal here so this'll have to wait. Baz
