From canals@tclayton.demon.co.uk Sat May 1 11:24:38 1999 Date: Thu, 02 Jul 1998 22:41:09 GMT From: Tony Clayton Reply-To: canals@blacksheep.org To: canals@blacksheep.org Subject: To Basingstoke (nearly) Part One We got back from our trip this evening, and it was great. We got up and down the locks in double-quick time as we shared with a narrow-boat (2hr 10 min down the 14 at Deepcut yesterday, and 55 min for the six at Woodham this morning). I am deeply grateful to Dave who turned up to help but found himself superfluous. We met five other boats moving up there (not counting the one we shared the locks with or the trip-boat at Mytchett), three of which were hire boats from Odiham. The canal is amazingly beautiful, and in good order. Some weed in places, but generally deep and wide. The locks fill slowly but empty fast, due to lack of gate paddles on top gates. It is amazingly quiet. The best bit was mooring at Whitewater Aqueduct looking down the future route to Basingstoke with dabchicks and coots pottering about. It has plenty of water for the next two weeks or so. A day of heavy rain will extend this by a further week. We had heavy rain and sun, but Flaming June it was not. Trip Summary: Day 1: Godalming to 1 mile below Pyford Lock. Beautiful evening. Day 2: To Woodham Junction, and up to below Brookwood Locks. Some rain. Day 3: Up Brookwood and Deepcut to Mytchett Canal Centre. Very heavy thunderstorm . after we had moored up! Day 4: To Whitewater Aqueduct. Glorious day. Day 5: Back to near Farnborough Road Bridge. Much rain in late morning Day 6: To Deepcut Top Lock. Sunny Day 7: To a mile above Woodham Top Lock. Sunny, cool Day 8: Back to Godalming. Dreary cloud, but dry! I am still dizzy from trying to cope with dry land, and I'll post the full story soon. -- Tony Clayton 'Linton', Godalming Wharf Home Page http://www.tclayton.demon.co.uk ... My reality check just bounced.