The horseflies around this part of England must be female because they all wanted a piece of me yesterday. The deck was littered with squashed corpses! Jan obviously isn’t as sweet.
We have received an email from Tim & Tracey (nb Sola Gratia) in which they mention that Tracey’s guide dog Oakley now has his own blog. We don’t usually read dog blogs but this one is special <link here>. In a few days time Oakley and Tracey start their 75 mile sponsored walk along the Kennet & Avon Canal from Bath to Reading. We’ll be looking for them!
After yesterday’s long and hot day we were up early and on the move by 7am. The idea was to get to a good mooring before lunch in the hope of finding a vacant spot. The canal widens at Lady’s Bridge (like a flash or smaller Tixall Wide) and I thought we might find a mooring. Alas the bank was fully occupied.
The other thing we have been looking for is the “White Horse” cut out on the chalk hillside somewhere in this general area. It looked like we wouldn’t see it with all the vegetation overhanging the canal. I was looking for it around Pewsey but our first glimpse was on the approach to Honeystreet.
Apparently this version of the horse dates back to 1937. There was an earlier version dating back to the late 18th century. Wikipedia reports there were eight white horses in Wiltshire.
We reached the 24 hour moorings at 9am to find them almost full. The boater adjacent to the water point mentioned he had previously been further back on the moorings but the nearby camping ground was too noisy. He then mentioned he might not go today as he wanted to wash his boat (he didn’t move). He has obviously been here in excess of 48 hours. We managed to squeeze between a locked up and vacant boat and another boater. Jan heard the boater in front of us being asked by yet another moored boater if they were going to move today? To which he replied “No!” It appears we will be the only boat crew to comply with the 24 hour mooring limit.
The mad dogs and english sat outside the nearby Barge Inn in the full heat of the sun. In contrast, we put all the bungs in the portholes on the sunny side and opened the houdini hatches and doors and waited out the 35 degrees. By 2pm the exterior steel on Waiouru became too hot to touch whilst the interior timber lining was cool. A testament to the thickness of the foam insulation.
It will probably be another early start tomorrow for the short move to the moorings at Horton
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