Bath.......

Motored on toward Bath and the weather was taking on a bit of a change...
It was starting to cloud over which was a bit of a relief from the hot sun and who would think in the UK one would be looking forward to a shower of rain..



Spreading out from the city centre....

 

The Georgian terraces fill the rolling hills...

As you get closer to the town....




An ornate cast iron bridge... 1800s... the rain had started...

And under the...

 

Cleveland House tunnel...

Above the tunnel...

 

 

Sits Cleveland House which was the Kennet & Avon Canal companies headquarters....

Got caught, me, in a heavy shower as we moored up. Had a "drip dry" off and an easy afternoon...

Next day took a walk around Bath.. The mooring was only a 12 minute walk to the town centre.
It is a very nice place too... but alas there are zillions of AAssshhoonn and other tourists so to get a photo we ventured back after 8pm. The tourist buses had left for the day..

The Famous...





Roman Baths are in this building...
Never paid to go in as your not even allowed to "Dabble" a toe in the mineral waters these days....

 

The building also houses the Baths museum...

Across the square is the...

Bath Abbey...1499.... Inside has fan vaulted ceilings, never took a photo, but they looked like a lot of work...

Out front was ...

 

Large intricate carved front door....

A feature of the architecture is the cresent shaped buildings....

 

This one, the circle,  has four sections which complete a circle of houses surrounding a green area.....

And a very impressive semi circle...

The Royal Cresent... 1767 - 1774....

Unfortunately there was scaffolding on the buildings and I don't do scaffolding photos so only a section to see.....

On the walk back to the NB...

 

A game of cricket at the Bath cricket ground... Excellent viewing from the footpath....

 

Next day back for more sights and one of the best is of the....

 

 

River Avon where it flows under the Pulteney Bridge... 1774...

And over....




The weir....

 

The bridge is one of only four in the world with a row of shops on each side the full length of the span... Built to connect the town with the new Bathwick Estate.....

 

You can see the shop windows... from the footpath the shops look about two metres wide...


Looking down...

 

Onto the weir...




Horse shoe shaped.....

 

 And put in place to help with flood control....

 

 

One thing I did notice in Bath is that houses have Front doors...

And here are....

Some....

Of....

The.....




Most "Trendy"... well in my opinion.....

Next stop Bristol.....

Bradford on Avon...

We stopped over for 2 nights at Bradford on Avon. Right next to the canal and spreading onto the hills it's a very nice place.
Peter and Jackie on NB Imagine moored with us which made for 2 enjoyable days and nights.

You can catch a train to London or to the west and the station is...

Very handy to the canal on the walk to the town centre...

The buildings we like. They look so solid and give the impression of warmth...

Built of....

Jurassic Limestone..... Bath Stone......

An old and attractive.....

Pub.... stone and slate......

And nearby....







The Bridge tea rooms.....  An old Blacksmiths cottage... 1502...

Not one to venture into too many churches, not since getting expelled from Sunday School, but this one was worth a look..

 

 

 St Laurence's church... An Anglo Saxon build....



 

I know in NZ we think a 1938 Ford Coupe is old and something dated 1885 is like prehistoric but this church was built about 800 and is practically the only one left that hasn't been modified at a later date.

The building was only about 7 metres wide and Pete and myself entered the tiny side room going wow this and look at that unaware a service was going on. We made a hasty retreat to wait 10 mins to re-enter..

The Larger room where the....




Congregation are seated... no heated seats here....

And looking toward the

Chancel or Presbytery room... through the arch doorway...

Hardly enough room....

 

To Swing a Religious Cat.....

 

We got to speak to the......

 

Dude in charge... turns out he'd been to our home town... Napier NZ...

Just after this photo shoot his off sider, dressed similar, came past carrying a silver tray with glasses of the holy water and wine I think, anyway I said "I'll have a double thanks"...
No answer.. not even a Holy smile...

Moved on to the centre...

A town centre street....

And another.....

 

Narrow but a lot of traffic passing through....

Looking from the....

Town bridge over the Avon...

And on the other bridge wall is a small stone room... was the lockup for drunks.......

 

The nearest pub had a karaoke night.... cheap entertainment and an excuse to go there.... who needs an excuse....

Anyway....

The DJ was setting up when we arrived.. a choice of 3000 songs and all the tacky stuff,  coloured lights that put patterns on the wall and floor, a smoke machine and check out those "Silk" flames....
Plus the DJ had 36 inch long "pointed as" crocodile skin type shoes.

We settled down with a pint of ale and wine to taste in anticipation of a "ripper" of a night....

A truck load of intoxicated woman turned up.... perfect.....

One soon grabbed the mic, and gave her rendition of "Valerie"....

Some of the others...

Showed their style on the floor......

Several different groups from hire boats called in and there were some humorous acts...
One fella who had done an "American Pie" badly came over and asked Jackie if she wanted to do a duet.
"What sort of songs do you do"? he asks...
"Hymms" she replies... no duet there...
The later it got the braver Peter got so......
In the end.....through the smoke haze....

 

 

Peter Jagger done the old classic..... "I can't get no".........

Well Satisfaction is what we got with a "Belly" full of laughs...

Fame set in quickly and others were asking Peter  to be in a....

Duet......... never reached the solo standards though...

All in all a bloody good time in Bradford on Avon....

Onward.... Westward......

Onwards toward Bath.
Can't complain about the K&A canal as a lot do. Apart from one nearly impossible lock gate the rest have been no harder than any other canal. Sure the locks keep coming, although there is a fourteen mile stretch with none, but it's no more demanding than say the Grand Union to London. And boaters keep complaining about lack of water points. Well we've found them regular and havn'tt gone below a half tank without any need for rationing.
The sunny days have been repetitive and the bare feet on the rear deck have been getting a fare burning top and bottom...

Entered the Bruce tunnel..502 yds... NB Imagine follows...

A restored wooden crane at Burbage wharf....

Onto Wootton Rivers were we moored for the night....
A town with many timber framed thatched houses...

 

 

 

 

 

 

We visited the pub on the right. Nice little pub and the only one in the village.
Lucky for them because the overweight woman serving was so sour, seems she sucked lemons full time, didn't smile and the act of serving patrons was a pain for her. A well dressed local overheard our discussing her manner as we left and walked down the road and he agreed but said unfortunately the locals had no other choice handy.
Anyway the beer was cold and tasty...

Next day we made a water stop so time for...

Some piklets, whipped cream, raspberry jam and an ice cream at the same time...

Passed a floral display....

 

Chelsea afloat....

From  the village of  Honeystreet  on the hills to the North is...

The White Horse cut into the hill in 1812...

Beside the canal is the Barge Inn pub...
Formerly a slaughterhouse, bakehouse, brewery and grocers...
It was very busy but we managed to get an outdoor table....

 

 

 This group of colourfull (people) asked if they could share the table. "sure can take a seat"...
Well what an entertaining time we had. They had been to a fair or something but ended up camping  in the woods somewhere and having a party,as you do, don't know if they looked worse for wear or normal.
The chick on the LR was French.. deep French accent.. The RH rear, coloured ropehead, lived in an ideallick forest setting up North...and the dude in the Hawhaiin shirt was a pro, guitarist in bands, punk bands etc.. I think he understated his talent a bit.. Didn't stop us sharing his hot chips when he got his meal though then we all had to have a taste out of ropeheads pint cos, she was trying the local green beer...
Peter, Jackie, Leonie and me had a good time there...


Then another, Hippie, pulled in in a NB...

 

Pete just returning from self helping himself to help the guy moor up...

 

Reluctently moved on.....

 

Looked up and saw a plane towing two gliders at once.. may be normal but new to me...

Moored at Devizes for a couple of nights...

Got the soap suds and ... Oh bought a new deck brush  on a handle so a roof scrub was in order...

Left Devizes and around the first bend....

The first of six locks that lead to the Caen Hill flight... sixteen locks... then seven more... 29 locks in less than two and a half miles...

I think I found it....

Could it be the Black Box from the missing Malaysian plane??...

Looking down...

 

From the top of the flight... lovely green countryside too....

Our traverse of the flight wasn't fast as we had several minor hold ups while we had to wait to empty our locks after NB,s coming up had moved....

 

Waiting in a lock with NB Imagine....

Because locks have water...





A water shot was in order......

Had time so...

 

 Stopped before exciting a lock two thirds down for a bite to eat...


And then exited the last of the flight locks....

 

 It's an impressive sight looking back up hill...

Had a team photo.. Leonie, Ray, Peter, Jackie and their friends who helped... Malcolm and Sara....

 

 

End of the day... Moored up at Sells Green and went to the pub.. Three Magpies.......