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I might title this "By water to Bath":
when CW was offered a facility trip on a narrow boat, how could I refuse? A boat with bikes along a canal sounded just fine for a holiday! Norman and I arrived at Rudloe by coach (£9 each return - winter offer) and then had just a few miles to cycle our Bromptons to Hilperton Marina to be introduced to our boat 'Olive Thrush', all 66 foot of it! Irwin soon joined us there, and took his first 'driving' lesson; none of us had previously been on a canal boat. So how do you control a 66 foot length of 14 tons deadweight? The answer is, slowly; and when you think you are going very slowly, even judged as a cyclist, it is too fast! Pass other moored boats at anything like 2 mph or more and they slam against the bank, causing their owners to curse you!
It did not take long to reach Bradfordon-Avon for our first night on board -time to attack the beautifully laid out tea tray which had greeted our arrival earlier. The boat is extremely well equipped with everything needed
except for food, probably even better equipped than many a self-catering establishment. The two Bromptons easily fitted between entrance steps and bunk, but there were three of us
on board: next day, having first gone aground on approaching the mooring at Bradford-on-Avon(!) we set off to Holt Road, home of Alex Moulton cycles. Here was arranged a test of all
the models, using the special cycle track on their premises. Some time later I left with a Bridgestone Moulton their very nice touring 'F-framed' bike, which we had borrowed for our boating trip. This was to be our third cycle.
After a strengthening cup of coffee and a good walk around the town, we found an excellent lunch at the pub by the lock, which we would still have to negotiate, after moving from our grounded position. This turned out to be easy to overcome: all we did was to board, start the engine and untie and then pole the stern outwards. With a 14 ton mass, one does not really push, one just leans on the pole and waits for movement to start; as this accelerates, one hops on board as the gap widens.
Once the stern pointed out into the canal, a burst of reverse power quietly drew the boat from the bank. From then on it was merely to pause, put on forward power slowly and gradually move ahead to the lock. Irwin and Norman had elected to work that while I just motored.
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First they had to close the lower gates and fill the lnck with water; when level with our upper level, they opened the gates for me to enter. Closing the gates again, emptying began. All I had to do was to keep the boat forwards using the engine so as to avoid the sill beneath the upper gates, while keeping the boat back from the lower gates by controlling the centre mooring line to a bollard; while the boat got lower this had to be released as well!
Safely down, I motored out and under the bridge, then had to ~tread water opposite the pub landing while the other two reset the lock and crossed over to rejoin the boat; for this I had a small space, so had to come in bow first for them to board before reversing out to clear the other boats. And on we went towards Bath. Further on a swing bridge was opened for us and on we went to Avoncliff, where the canal takes two right angled turns to cross the valley on an aqueduct; very sharp corners these proved to be! I know experienced boatmen would round them with ease, but at least we did not strike the hard concrete edges! A bit of reverse thrust and hard turning of the stern, and the pole was not needed! Round we went.
Probably the prettiest part of the canal came next, as the canal winds a sinuous course through park-like terrain. Going this slowly even the ducks ignore the passage of the boat. If in a hurry, it is easy to pull up to the bank and allow a cyclist to disembark to ride ahead to prepare the next bridge or lock, thus saving time going through. But it is not necessary to hurry; this sort of boating is very leisurely and really better suited to bicycling from the boat, using it as a movable centre from which to explore. Cycling this stretch proved just as enjoyable, the hard-packed towpath meandering sinuously between trees and grassy bank.
Driving the boat for the first time takes a lot of concentration, so we were very happy to tie up as soon as we had crossed our second aqueduct, the Dundas; leading off this is the Brass Knocker Basin. A footpath leads directly up the very steep hill to the top of Brass Knocker Hill, which we had to see as, many years ago, this used to be a favoured testing hill climb for those struggling on fixed gears; nowadays it would be easier to cycle using a multi-geared cycle, if only it were not so heavily trafficked!
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For easier cycling, the whole length of this section of towpath forms part of NCR4 (which runs from Greenwich to Fishguard - maybe that will make a good ride, one day?). Here, at the Dundas Aqueduct, Route 24 joins; this route heads off southwards to Radstock, former mining town, from which coal was entrained for the canal boats at Brass Knocker Basin.
For our second day we motored on to Bath, mooring well before the six locks that lead down to the River Avon and into Bath. We used the first winding pool we came to; it is not possible to turn a canal boat just where you want to! There was much to see in Bath, with its historic past: Roman Bath, Georgian Bath and even modern Bath! Regrettably our time here was short, as we needed to return to the Dundas Aqueduct again for our night's mooring, to allow for returning the borrowed Moulton and the boat itself.
The most ridiculous situation occurred on the return trip: coming to the swing bridge we saw a lone boater trying to open this. Instead of awaiting our help, he pushed the bridge out as far as he could reach, after which he jumped
aboard his boat and tried to open it further by pushing from the deck. Of course, the boat just moved away! He squeezed through only to find that he could now not moor on that side to shove it back again! I put Irwin on to
the bridge from our deck, so that he could then sort the muddle out.
Following a very quiet night near the Dundas Aqueduct, we had a lovely run back to Bradford-on-Avon, picking up a hitch-hiker on the way; a female duck too lazy to swim! Bradford we found to be as pleasant as ever; our favourite attraction turned out to be the Saxon Church, a real gem, virtually unchanged from its original form. We were sorry to have to return the Moulton after so short a time, and disappointed that the boat, too, had to be relinquished, all of us feeling that a much longer hire would have vastly improved the break.
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