Adrian and the Caen Hill Flight of Locks.

Saturday 11th August 2018 outside Devizes.
M was up at 5:45, early enough to catch the mist rising from the water with a colourful sky behind.

As the sun rose, a bright shaft of sunlight shining through the bridge 'ole lit up the canal. Magic!

Guy was already on the lookout for Adrian, due to join us for the day to help us up the Caen Hill flight (his idea, honestly!).

Adrian appeared just after 9:00am, cycling down the towpath, having left his car in Devizes. After a sustaining bowl of porridge each, we set off towards the first of the locks about a mile along the canal.

At Foxhangers Wharf, there is a pumping station that is capable of pumping 32 million litres of water to the top of the flight, equivalent to a lock-full of water every 11 minutes. These days the pump is powered by solar cells next to the lock. Adrian and R looked at the digital readout that said that over a quarter of a million kilowatt-hours have been generated this year by the panels.

We waited for an hour here in the hopes that another boat would arrive to share the locks with us, but what did arrive was a wide-beam, which we waved through. As the wide-beam was going up, another boat arrived to go down, so the lock ended up in our favour and we decided to go on ahead on our own.
There are seven spaced locks before the main Caen Hill flight of 16 locks and the side ponds of these locks were full of pretty yellow wild water lily.

Approaching the bottom of the main flight, M walked through the old horse tunnel, which had also served for the tramway built along the towpath while the locks were originally being built in the early 1800s.

The workboat was in the last of the seven locks, on its way to Semington to repair erosion to the canal banks.

R and Adrian posed at the foot of the main Caen Hill flight, which stretches up into the distance behind Adrian's left shoulder.

The 16 locks rise 130ft 8in in three-quarters of a mile, an average gradient of 1 in 30. We started into the bottom lock (lock 29) at exactly mid-day.

Adrian quickly got into the swing of things, doing each lock with R while M went ahead to set the next lock.

About halfway up, we fell into conversation with a German family from Cologne who are touring the area. They were delightful. Marc and Johann, father and son, wanted to help with the locks, while Doethe and Antonia, mother and daughter, came on board MM for the ride up through the locks after both children had tried closing a lock gate together.

More teazels, now dry and brown and forming seed heads.

Towards the top of the flight there were very many gongoozlers (onlookers), while from the bank Doethe kept a watchful eye on her children, now both on MM.

As we entered the top lock of the 16, it started to drizzle. We left the top lock just on 3:00pm, so three hours for the flight with just three crew (plus help from our new German friends). We moored up just above the top lock on a 24 hour mooring that we used twice six years ago. Time for a group photograph in front of MM...

And another group photograph on the bridge looking back down the flight of locks, where we bid them farewell. We would not be at all surprised to hear that they hire a narrowboat for next year's holiday!

Finally, the three of us repaired to the café at the top of the flight for two cream teas and a sausage bap. Adrian then left to cycle back to his car in Devizes, it was so much fun to spend the day with him.

Today: 3 miles, 23 locks and 5.8 hours.
Trip: 200 miles, 111 locks and 130.8 hours.