Shades of "The African Queen"

Thursday 26th July, 2012 in Devizes.
We awoke to a lovely morning, with the promise of another hot day. Ahead of us was the delightful prospect of seven miles of lock-free cruising to Devizes. We were not disappointed! It was a lovely stretch but with some surprises.
Quite often the canal was overgrown with reeds to such an extent that the channel in the middle was so narrow that we were touching on both sides. M said that with MM edging through the tall reeds in the heat of the day, she felt like Katherine Hepburn standing next to Humphrey Bogart on "The African Queen" negotiating the ever narrowing channel!

Also, twice we came across boats that had come adrift from their moorings and were drifting in the middle of the canal. Both times, R caught them, brought them to the bank and tied them back up again, the second time with the help of the grateful owners who arrived as we towed their boat to the edge of the canal.

In the guide books, Devizes is described as a charming town and so it proved to be. We moored in the central wharf area and walked into town just as the local market was closing. The town is full of lovely old buildings and ginnels (little alleyways).

We found a Costa and rewarded ourselves with delicious cold iced coffees, went to M&S to do a 'small shop' - and then staggered back to the boat like a pair of overloaded pack horses. On the way we saw a notice addressed to any small children in the neighbourhood!

By 6:00pm, it had cooled down sufficiently for us to do some reconaissance of the 'Caen Hill Flight' of locks that we plan to tackle on Sunday. We walked the mile to the top of the Flight, passing six locks on the way. The Flight itself is sixteen locks in just under a mile that drop the canal 130feet. We walked all the way down to the bottom of the Flight.

It was even more spectacular from the bottom! Then we walked back up again - it certainly will be a challenge on Sunday!
We had 'many meetings' and conversations today. This is an incredibly friendly and companionable stretch of the waterways.
Today: 7 miles, 0 locks and 5.1 hours
Trip: 161 miles, 123 locks and 128.4 (total: 272.8 hours).