From one bury to another - Kintbury to Newbury

We moored at Enfield last night and Tom took the train this morning into London to explore some of the galleries and sights, leaving Barry and I to travel to Tottenham Hale where we'll meet up with Fred this afternoon ...

Tuesday 7 September

It was a bright and beautiful morning when we poked our heads out of the windows this morning, despite the forecast predicting a wet and chilly day.  We're hoping to have another Indian Summer like last year for Tom's visit next week - I must tell him to pack his thermals though just in case!  He's just experienced his first Wellington winter though, so I suspect it'll be warmer here anyway.

As it was such a pleasant day, I caught up on some hand washing in the morning - it's going to be a challenge keeping on top of it all the visitors we're expecting.  When/if we return to the waterways in years to come, I shall definitely insist on having a washing machine on the boat.  I dislike washing by hand, and having it hanging around the bow, dripping all over, is a real pain.  At least if its been spun first you can dry it inside the boat fairly quickly.  Ah well, it's not so bad really, I could be at work instead!!!

Our aim today was to get at least as far as Newbury, we need to be in Reading by Thursday lunchtime as our friend Jill is coming to stay for a couple of days then.

We're still enamoured by the Kennet & Avon Canal, despite travelling the same stretch on the return journey, and saw more wonders of the waterways today ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wow!  A Kingfisher sits still ...    and another magnificent, but rare sight - check out that rudder!

It was only about six miles and six locks to Newbury, and we managed to share some of them with a couple on their boat; sadly we didn't record the name of it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

         It's always a joy to share locks with other boats                        Should've used the bridge!

Silhouettes of haystacks in the fields

We'd had an email from 'Waterscape' to say that lock 95 at Aldermaston was closed on Wednesday until 1600hrs, so there was no point in travelling any further, we'd have a longer day tomorrow. 

 Heading back into Newbury

Moored above the lock this time - look at those charming chimneys!

In the evening we watched another couple of episodes of  'The Travelling Man', the 1980's TV series about an ex-con, ex-cop searching for his son and the villains who 'set him up' that Granny Buttons very generously lent us eons ago - we'll finish the fourth and final DVD tomorrow night and send it safely back.  You can read here the first of Granny Buttons' comprehensive posts on the series.  We'll strangely miss Max and his haunting pan pipes.  Despite some tales being a bit slow and tedious with vague connections with the canals, he's grown on us over the last few months like an old friend.  He certainly had varying luck with women - although he seemed to have 'a girl in every port' so to speak, a couple of them died tragically, one by suicide and the other through manslaughter - he was a bit of a danger to be around!  Still, at least he did find his son and spend a week with him, and eventually caught the scoundrel who framed him.

Some more wet flowers from Rougemont Park Exeter

Exploring Exeter, then back to the boat in Hungerford

We're now heading back towards Tottenham Hale so that Tom can get the tube into central London for a day on Thursday.  We'll sit tight for the day tomorrow, or move only a short distance as Barry's friend Fred is coming to visit for a day or so ...

Monday 6 September

The weather forecast before we left the boat predicted that it'd be fairly settled until Tuesday - sadly they were wrong again!  This morning it chucked it down, which wasn't ideal for seeing the beautiful city of Exeter.  Barry hadn't been there before, so Viv packed the brollies and off we set regardless.

Dominating the skyline is the splendid sight of Exeter Cathedral, though it wasn't nearly as impressive as I've seen before due to the gloominess of the day.  We'd have loved to have gone inside, but although it used to be free to go in, they were now charging £5 each admission to raise funds for restoring the carvings around the walls, so we declined.  I really believe that these places would get more if they asked for voluntary donations - surely more numbers of people would go in, so theoretically they'd pay less but collectively the cathedral would receive more?

 

 

 

 

 

Exeter Cathedral is reportedly "...the finest example of Decorated Gothic architecture in any Cathedral."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Plenty of Roman ruins scattered around the city centre amongst the modern architecture 

  

 

 

 

 

 Fabulous old church bell tower

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very friendly smiley old ruin - If you turn it upside down it makes more sense

We only had a couple of hours to spare before our return train to Hungerford, so Viv chose another delight for us in Rougemont Gardens.  Such a shame it continued to drizzle and intermittently pour with rain, but we could still get a feel for the beauty of this parkland.  I'd never been here before ...

Inside Rougemont Gardens is a Roman city wall and bank, and the bank and ditches of William the Conqueror's Castle

 Superb floral displays all over the gardens

 The new shopping complex in the town - a little damp and deserted! 

The Ship Inn - a 16th century establishment where reportedly Sir Frances Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh have supped ale 

The Ship Inn is just around the corner from the cathedral, its exterior remaining very authentic but the interior has sadly not withstood the test of time.  In 1994, apparently the premises were refurbished and a Russian visitor paid £2,700 for all the fittings and fixtures to fit out and open the first English pub in Kaliningrad!

  Impressive glass structures in the town centre

We caught the 1155hrs train back to Hungerford with no delays and found Northern Pride safe and sound.  After a spot of grocery shopping in Tesco's, we moved along for a pump out, water fill up, then meandered along the canal and three locks to an overnight stop and a look around the village of Kintbury.

The 13th century church at Kintbury, restored in 1859 

 Wooded path leading to the church

 The Old Vicarage by the canal at Kintbury

Moored up before the lock at Kintbury - Northern Pride is the third boat up

We have an abundance of guests arriving in the near future; Jill from Tamworth is visiting from Thursday to Saturday, then we have my daughter Kim and her partner Joe from Brighton Saturday lunchtime till Sunday evening, then Barry's son Tom all the way from New Zealand from Monday evening until 1 October!  Crikey!  No rest for the wicked, we're certainly never bored.  We also need to get an advertisement ready to put the boat on the market - sadly our time on Britain's waterways is running out :-(

A glorious flower from Rougemont Gardens - looks like its been painted with a red brush!

Oh I do love to be beside the seaside ...

We're now in Bishop's Stortford, at the summit of the navigable part of the River Stort.  Barry and Tom travelled with Pete to Roydon on Sunday, where I returned to the boat last night.

Sunday 5 September

Our niece Vicki and her partner Phil (and his parents), along with their daughter Ria-May, arrived in Paignton on holiday for a week yesterday, so we arranged to spend the day by the seaside with them.  It wasn't the best weather in the morning, but thankfully brightened up after lunch.

No! not Paignton this is Goodrington Beach that Phil and Vicki view from their apartment

 

An interesting arrangement of water points for the apartment block they were staying in - imagine what the pipework beneath this must look like!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ria-May wasn't interested in the other conversation going on, just the funny looking photographer

Once we found the apartment where they were staying, we all walked to Paignton along the scenic cliff path, surrounded by vibrant, red, volcanic rock and an eclectic mix of beach huts and houses ...

Will I fit behind here?

A lonely wait

 

 

 

 

 

 

The red soil around here is the very old dust and fallout washed down from the when the moors were volcanic, approximately 280 million years ago

 

 

 

 

 

 All shapes, sizes and colours of abodes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love the colour scheme

Our first stop was to buy lunch and eat our fish and chips by the sea front, though Barry and I only had chips and curry sauce.  I love to eat them out of the paper, dipping the chips into the curry sauce, and once we'd eaten them all I re-wrapped the paper.  It had what appeared to be curry sauce on outside of the paper, and I licked my fingers where it'd smudged on them, realising too late it was seagull pooh that must've been on the concrete where we were sitting, masquerading as curry sauce!  Yuck!  I immediately spat out the offending particles and quickly asked Harry for his water bottle, washed my mouth out a number of times and spat again.  It certainly amused everyone in the vicinity, including an elderly lady in a wheelchair who found it terribly amusing, bless her!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Fish 'n chips at the seaside - the best place to have them - beware of curry sauce though, it may come from above!

 A typical seaside scene

Paington main beach from the pier with a choppy autumnal sea

Recovering swiftly from my stomach turning experience, we headed for the Pier and the penny arcade - always a fun way to spend an hour or so. You don't need much money, just change for a couple of pounds; you know you're not going to win anything or what you do you put back!  It's the suspense of watching the two pence's teetering on the edge and occasionally all falling down into the tray below, that's somehow very addictive and so typical of a British seaside town. 

After such frivolity we had another stroll then a Devonian cream tea - a pot of tea each, a scone, clotted cream and jam - deliciously decadent and of course it'll go straight to the hips!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

      Sandra, Ray, Harry, Viv, Phil and Vicki on the pier          Sandra holding Ria-May very tightly

You've gotta love the British seaside

 Pastel coloured frontages adorn the area - picture-perfect

 

Phil, Vicki, Sandra, Viv, Ria-May, Ray and Harry before leaving Paignton

 

 

 

Our return journey took a de-tour through Totness, where Ray lives.  It was a shame we didn't have longer to look around as it seemed such a charming place, but Ray was working at 0200hrs on Monday morning so we needed to get back to Exeter so he could get some sleep.  The weather had taken another turn for the worst and was clouding over, so sadly it wasn't the best light for photos, but Barry still managed to capture some of the essence of the town  ...

Totnes, with the River Dart running through the middle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The attractive Eastgate in the centre of Totnes, and moored boats line-up as if standing to attention on the River Dart

We had a fairly quiet evening, ready to return to Northern Pride on Monday lunchtime following a quick look around Exeter.