Narrowboat Balmaha – All Cannings to Devizes (K&A)

Tuesday 21st to Sunday 26th April 2009

Seeing as how we couldn’t post pictures on the last Blog (poor GPRS signal) I’m including some of them here before we cruise too far from the Vale of Pewsey.

A plaque survives on the road to Pewsey but not everyone interprets the sentiment in the same way because lying next to it was a polythene bag containing a deer’s head. Quite horrible.

This is the fella that we thought was telling us about his boat being the last wooden steam boat on the cut. Pity there wasn’t time to learn more about this one. Bet there’s a story behind it. I wish him well with restoration, can’t be easy when you’re having to live on it at the same time.

Outside the Royal Oak, Wootton Rivers with Mike, V and Jo (Mike is the one with the 5 pint beer glass. Empty you’ll notice).

Tezzer and Claire popped in to see us last Sunday at All Cannings where we exchanged mail for meal.

Leaving AC on Tuesday we came across a personalised narrowboat, quite distinctive in its signwriting, but less clear in its origins.

Contrast that with this one we saw the other day, named Mitakuye Oyasin (Lakota Sioux for All My Relations. It is a prayer of oneness and harmony with all forms of life: other people, animals, birds, insects, etc..)

Returning to Honey Street for diesel (70p) we self declared our own propulsion figures, and took our leave of Mike and Jo while they popped into hospital for a routine X-ray of Jo’s broken arm.

It’s not a million miles from All Cannings to Devizes but we broke the journey into two and spent the night in an vacant one-boat-length of canal bank in the reeds above the deserted fields. Our friends for the night were two helicopters that wouldn’t sit still and a thundering great plane that took delight in skimming the trees. All three played around in the evening skies until well after dark but at bedtime the natural peace of the countryside returned.

Wednesday brought us to Devizes, another place we’d visited by road years ago when we were hungry for canals. Just to keep us on our toes we were tipped sideways three times before we arrived at the wharf. Is it BW’s idea of sleeping policemen or have the locals found somewhere to dispose of their unwanted motor cars now that the Chinese aren’t buying scrap steel?

At this end of the K&A we’ve noticed a higher percentage of young people on boats, far more than we’re used to seeing up north. Some days you feel like you could do without seeing another old timer in his shiny £100k narrowboat and in these parts your eyes get a rest as young-uns hang out on the canals, enjoying the water instead of bricks and mortar.

Signage opposite the wharf was somewhat confusing so we took our guidance from the mooring rings and plopped ourselves right next to the sign that seemed to be telling us we were welcome to stop here and yet we weren’t.

The next blue-shirt that cycled along was hailed and quizzed which brought out his computer and an entry made of our boat name and number. Once we were checked in he told us that part of the sign was missing but we could stop where we were if we wanted. The next sign along the towpath was just the same, something missing. I was tempted to make my own addition to the wooden post but thought better of it and in any case it wouldn’t have helped our relationship with blue-shirt HQ.

We hadn’t been there long when Sarah-Kate arrived, X-rays done and nothing to worry about at least not until cutting-off time in three weeks. Now I know why they gave her a red plaster, those circular saws are a devil to set up for the right cutting depth.

Thursday morning Mike did a shufti and announced that this was market day. Hooray.
Girls went one way, boys went another. We pounced on a café and sat outside with coffees and pastry (I can’t spell croissant) and watched the noise. Had to laugh when we saw grapes, tomatoes and peppers fall to the road and roll into the gutter. Some people picked them up and placed them back on the stalls (yuk), some kicked them to death but one old fella picked up a massive mushroom and popped it in his bag. Yummy.

We toured the open market before looking indoors. The tool stall did us both proud and I made an unusual purchase, I’ve been looking for this for years, something to combat hayfever. Here it is being modelled later in the day as we passed a bonfire behind the towpath hedge.

Mike also made a purchase which he later modelled while waiting for the locks.

But we did even better at Devizes, we signed on fresh crew in the shape of Paul and Christine Balmer who took pity on us and offered to help us through the hundreds of locks in the Caen Hill flight.

Paul is well known as the man behind Waterway Routes, the specialists in making videos of English canals.
Having watched a couple of DVDs I can thoroughly recommend them for viewing before you cruise and as a record of your cruise to look back on in the years to come. The speeded up version is brilliant for a quick view of where you’re planning to go, while the second disk gives the whole journey with music and voice-over to show you just how easy or how difficult the cruise is going to be.
Quality is second to none and assuming Paul can make DVDs to other countries’ standards I reckon that these videos will make valuable purchases for overseas visitors to our canals.
Here’s Paul and Christine on the waters taking the waters.

When the time came to tackle the Caen Hill flight of locks we (Mike and I) did the decent thing and paired up to descend the hillside.

Once or twice we were complimented on our perfect exits and interesting line-dancing at lock approaches.

While Paul chaperoned the ladies with his windlass we slipped calmly beneath the visitors on the wooden bridges above us.

From one of these bridges we were spotted by the owners of nb.Oakfield (under construction) and I have to apologise for missing their greetings which I put down to being drowned out by engine noise or Mike’s singing.

Apparently some of these locks have to be left empty over night. Maybe I’ve stumbled on the cause of that ruling – there are huge caverns behind the brickwork and as usually happens they empty over your feet or worse still into the windows.

We rested up below the main flight and talked the donkey’s hind legs off with Paul, Christine, Mike and Jo. Much of the talk centred on cruising the Bristol Channel which was beginning to present itself as a possibility this time round. Leaving us with a video of Andrew Denny’s 2005 channel cruise he wished us well on what he seemed to think was no more of a procedure than a cruise up the Thames. We shall look out for them on their camera cruises and perhaps accompany them on one of their future assignments. Thank you both for your exertions today and for your encouragement to tackle the Severn Seas like Granny Buttons.

The next couple of days saw us drop another six locks and moor beyond a busy boat hiring centre. Wallowing in favourable weather we took the weekend off and rested our little bodies.
This bit of canal, below Foxhanger’s Wharf is notorious for changes in level. I put it down to the millions of hireboats taking the easy route to the west and emptying the canal one lock-full at a time.

Between bouts of pushing the boat off the side and back into the water I messed with the brass-work and studied the gas mask instructions written in Finnish. There’s a bag that goes with the mask and inside the bag is a bottle of white powder. I’m not sure whether to hide it, sell it or hand it in.

We’ve had a talk with Mike and Jo about throwing our lives away on a cruise to Sharpness and it doesn’t feel right at this time so we’re leaving it to another day. V and I will have another chance when cousin Roger goes full time on nb.Megan. I’ll show him the Granny Buttons video minus the bits where she slams into the waves on her way to Portishead marina and see if we can find a window to combine a K&A cruise with the salty route to Sharpness.

Just to make things interesting I fancy the idea of parking up on the sandbanks outside Avonmouth instead of putting in at the marina. There’s little danger of getting clouted by ships if the water is that shallow and it will give me a chance to practise morse with flags during the day and the torch during the night.

You can see how brave I am when the Editor isn’t looking over my shoulder.