Heni's "Cafe on the Barge"

Sunday 5th August, 2012 in Bradford on Avon.
What a joy to hear the bells of Bath Abbey below as we had breakfast! It's been quite a strange feeling to be so high above the city, but it does afford the most splendid views.
So, this is the point at which we end our westward travels and start back east. We had decided not to risk the River Avon down to Bristol as, with all the rain we have been having, it keeps being closed to navigation.  Starting off this morning necessitated reversing a few hundred yards to the nearest winding hole (turning point) through some tight spaces between moored boats and under a bridge. Having seen no traffic all morning on the canal, just as R started to reverse, two boats came the other way!
We saw at least three boats with stag parties aboard, some of them we had seen yesterday although this morning (after the night before) they were predictably much more subdued!
Soon after we started, the rain began to take it seriously. We decided to moor up briefly at Bathampton, where there is a water point and a floating coffee shop that we had seen on the way down. The puddles are the evidence of the downpours!

A timely decision, as once inside the "Cafe on the Barge" the rain came down in torrents accompanied by thunder and lightning. We were a motley crew, all huddled inside to escape the weather - ourselves, two gentlemen cycling to Bristol, one local chap just out for a stroll, and the staff of three ladies, two of whom were Greek and the owner, Heni, was Hungarian. A fairly riotous time ensued with much laughter and banter. The coffee and cakes were great too! If you are passing, do drop in, it is definitely worth it even if its not raining!

Inside the "Cafe on the Barge"

The same weather pattern continued all afternoon, heavy downpours, thunder and lightning with occasional glimpses of the sun. Despite the rain, we had a lovely journey back to Bradford on Avon. The fallen tree had been removed and it was nice to see our dream house and nb "Tsitsikamma" again. We looked her up and she was Kingsground's 33rd boat, built in 2000 and she still looks great.

We were fortunate to find a mooring at Bradford on Avon opposite the Tithe Barn as there was a lot of activity towards the end of the day and queues for the lock. We will go through the lock tomorrow when it is quieter. We did walk up past the lock to reconnoitre and found that the K&A Canal Trust Cafe had closed early due to the weather. The fact that they had a neat laminated notice, confirms that it has been raining quite a lot this summer!

Kingsground is due to come down to MM tomorrow to do a 300 hour service on the engine.   After that, we have friends coming down to visit for the day Tuesday and Wednesday, so we will stay around here until Thursday.
Today: 9 miles, 0 Locks and 4.2 hours.
Trip: 191 Miles. 160 Locks and 155.3 hours (305.3 total).