Narrowboat Balmaha – Still east of Bath

Monday 11th to Sunday 17th May 2009.

Monday
The plank came in useful this morning when John and Joan from V’s coach trip to Scotland called in to see us. Lovely couple, live between Shaftesbury and Shepton Mallet, on the road we used to travel when visiting the in-laws.

Walked to Bath for the shops, wallet was just as heavy when we got back, fruitless visits to hardware shops and nothing but tired legs to show for hours waiting outside fitting rooms.

Nattered to a BW man just before we departed for Bathampton and he told us there was a regular ‘patrol’ in this neck of the woods every Monday or Tuesday. Too regular if you ask me because all the naughty ones move up to Bradford on Avon on Monday night, swapping places with their cousins who come down here.

Tuesday
Used the plank again. John and Beth called in to see us. Haven’t seen these guys for a while and there’s always so much to catch up on like kids, hobbies and people we knew from yesteryear. Links go back to 1972 when house sharing was in vogue and finding parties at weekends was helped by knowing where nurses lived.

Wednesday.
Pottered up to Bradford on Avon with Mike and Jo on Sarah-Kate. V was desperate for the shops, the groceries kind, and we were getting low on the wet stuff, both kinds.
Got reminded that the washing machine’s drying function doesn’t work, I’d forgotten all about it and made a note on the second sheet of A4 to have a look at it (one day). It won’t be easy because the machine is built in and I’ll have to use a jemmy to get the jolly thing out.

Thursday
A sunny day, hooray. We all agreed to wander down town, Bradford’ that is, and sample the Bridge tea rooms coffee and nibbles. Terribly nice fella served us, apologised for not wearing his pinny.

Nice place, not huge but then you don’t get a lot of space in hundred year old buildings.
Outside we wandered across to the hardware and clothes shops, usual routine, she finds nothing that fits, and we go to the museum. You’ve got to go there if you’re in town, there’s a complete pharmacy as it was millions of years ago, you remember the sort of place, where you could buy bits for chemistry experiments at home.

More culture came our way as Mike and Jo led us up to the Saxon church of St.Laurence, then down again to the tithe barn.

These are places not to be missed, but unlike the museum you didn’t get the old fella’s explanation so it’s up to you to read the blurb and spot the features. I’m a lazy sightseer and prefer to rely on tour guides for my input.

But we can’t be hanging around Bradford’ all day so we tied up to Sarah-Kate and did a pirouette in the boat basin before entering the lock to go back down to Avoncliffe for the night.
We did a lovely spin with props in forward and reverse but there was no one to notice.

It rained, again, but nothing too bad or I would have stayed indoors. I walked V around the aqueduct and pondered the ‘request-stop’ railway station until a train came along and picked up the lady who stuck out her hand. How civilised is that.

Tomorrow morning Mike and Jo will catch the train here for another hospital visit. This is the biggy, the plaster is coming off. We joked about her putting her red plastered arm out to stop the train and damaging the driver’s cab.

The view from the aqueduct answered some of my questions about the River Avon. It’s not just getting wider but the flow is picking up, preparing for its take-over of the canal at Bath.

V cooked for the four of us on Thursday night and we ate faggots and peas, faggots from the market stall in Bradford’.
Tasted lovely but did terrible things a couple of hours later.

Friday
It was a pain getting caught on the submerged concrete every time a boat passed so we pushed off and left Sarah-Kate behind. Mike and Jo managed the request-stop train both ways and, returning later in the day, cruised west to meet us at Dundas.

We met an interesting fella here as we sheltered under a tree during a rain storm. Noticing several boats sporting the latest boater’s accessory, the black and white Patrol Notice, we received an explanation for boats behaving in their own particular way.

Perhaps because they have been squeezed out of their customary moorings they are now showing a sense of community and preparing to face their goliath together.

Invited to join their discussions at a favourite watering hole we declined but maybe one day, when those licence fees finally become too much to bear we will seek out the boaters of “Sunset Strip”, as he called it, and join the battle.

This boat reminds me of the ingenuity of boaters who personalise their craft. On many of them the window frames, doors and furniture show some amazing wood working talent.

Between showers we wandered the paths around the Dundas Aqueduct and found ourselves in Brassknocker Basin. What a delightful place this is with its charming name and historical connections with the coal fields to the east.
It might be a tiny canal stuck on the side of the Kennet and Avon but it’s not short of a hire boat or two.

Ladies can hire boats too you know, and we just happened to meet a few preparing for the weekend. But not all was as it seemed, a few deep voices aroused suspicions but their smiles were genuine even if nothing else was.

Saturday
We’re off again. Pausing for water and other things at the service point we agreed movements with Mike and Jo. They’ll kill a couple of hours at Claverton’s pump while we sniff out the moorings at Bathampton.
Jo’s arm looked odd with its puffy wrist and wasted forearm where the plaster had been but exercises should put things right in time. She wasn’t best pleased with the restriction on wrist movement and the pain showed in her face when she attempted the praying hands pose.

This was to be another day of April showers, just when you think it’s all over another gale hits the boat.

But it’s good news, we can eat properly again, Rob and Jan are visiting for dinner. Known this couple since I don’t know when. V was at school with Jan and I suppose I met Rob a few years later when we moved to Pucklechurch (don’t laugh, that’s a real place).
Rob was in the Merch’ like me so I was understandably keen to get stuck into the photo albums they’d brought along. Pictures of rough seas and very, very, large crude carriers (supertankers to you) and stories of people met and places been in the 1970s brought back many happy memories.

Sunday 17th May 2009.
Weather wasn’t brilliant but the food was. It was Ter and Claire’s turn to visit so we got the best plates out and had proper food again.

Lunch was followed by a sleep in the chair, last night was catching up on me I’m afraid.
Don’t forget the Blog V said, zzzzzzzz said I.
I’ll do it tomorrow.