Alas our time was up and we wanted to reverse onto the water point and it was drizzling with rain. However there was one of the many wide beam boats already on there. So we got all togged up in our wet weather gear ready for the off. Eventually he moved off and we pulled over to fill our tank. We didn’t add our rubbish to the two small wheelie bins that were overflowing each side, but took it with us to the next stop. The day before was nice and sunny when I walked down to the top of the flight. Plenty of customers at the small cafe there and a couple of cyclists mending a puncture. So, we came down the six locks to the top of the Caen Hill flight of sixteen with their side ponds. Here we stopped for a short break before the onslaught began. The rain was clearing away but the wind was doing it’s best to blow us off course.
Here we go, looks tranquil here as we leave the lock, doesn’t it? There were lock keepers on duty with life jackets and windlasses but not doing very much. However this one on the quad bike appeared to be sweeping bits of the towpath. Non of them spoke to us so we just carried on down by ourselves! At the bottom lock we met a wide beam hotel boat waiting to come up.
The lady steerer seemed to have plenty of controls to use to manoeuvre the boat aside to let us through. The skies were continually changing from bright sunshine to dark clouds and still blowing cold, but it stayed dry luckily.
We went on through the other seven locks to find a space for two at Sells Green. So, how did we feel after doing twenty nine double locks? Well not bad at all except for the knees being a bit creaky! We had completed a fall of 237 feet over a distance of two and a quarter miles altogether, phew!
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