Boating do si do on the Caen Hill flight

Lovely meal at the Barge, pricey but delicious and well worth stopping at. Sunset was equally spectacular but the one downside, rats! I could here rustling by the boaters rubbish bins and to get to the pub from the moorings we had to walk right by them. Nearly thought about putting rat deterrents on the mooring ropes. A bit like those on Boudicca.

Wow....We had a lie in this morning! With Dennis and Margaret stopping in their camper van by the pub, we had a towpath chat and coffee at 9am. It was lovely then to set off at 9.45am knowing that we were to get extra help doing, not just the Seend locks and unbeknown by us, the whole of the Caen Hill flight as well.

A willow curtain to obscure ones view. Margaret by the lock beam.

Top lock of Seend flight.  Margaret, Dennis, Ian and Dave

  It wasn't planned, doing that flight today. In fact, if the 24 hour mooring had been free at the bottom by lock 29, we would have stayed to do the flight tomorrow. It was rather decided for us by a boat already moored there. The boaters had decided to await another boat rather then doing the flight on their own. Highly commendable in my book. Anyway having left Dennis and Margaret at the top of Seend flight, the plan was for them to meet up with us again at the bottom of the Caen Hill flight (lock 29) for elevenses. With no mooring available, and us having to ascend the flight, they helped us up all 16 locks. Even with their help it took 2 hours although it could have been done quicker if it wasn't for meeting boats on the way down. That caused us some challenging moments, I can tell you.

Boat moored on the 24 hour waiting for another single boat.

Dennis and Margaret walking down the flight to meet us.

Another view of the Caen Flight

Oh 'eck it's the grass cutting crew!

Bit of a boat jam!

Crossing between the locks, Vixen crossed with the hire boat while I stayed in the lock.

Hire boat comes next to me.

While Heather goes in next to the private boater. Then it was my turn to cross with the private boat. Worked brilliantly!

Farewell to Margaret and Dennis. We all soooo appreciated the help.

Time was now getting on and we would like to have moored in Devizes. A word with a volunteer lockie told us how busy the place was so we stopped by the Black Horse between lock 47 and 48. Tomorrow Ian and Dave have booked a trip round the brewery so we are hoping a couple of spaces will become available. May have to have a walk up into town in the morning to see.

Oh, and the question I asked yesterday about the strange box on the lock gates, well nesting boxes are now a good possibility as this one shows on one of the Seend locks.

And on route,

Looks like it's not just the birds at it.