From canals@tclayton.demon.co.uk Sat May 1 11:25:38 1999 Date: Mon, 06 Jul 1998 17:48:00 GMT From: Tony Clayton Reply-To: canals@blacksheep.org To: canals@blacksheep.org Subject: To Basingstoke (nearly) Part Five Day 5: Monday June 29th - Greywell to Farnborough The next day dawned cloudy, so after breakfast we said goodbye to the dabchicks and headed back towards the River Wey. The first task was the lift bridge, where we held up a vehicle for the second time. It is amazing, really, as the road should be very quiet - there are few houses and an imposing ford over the White Water a few yards down the road. Before long we were at Colt Hill, now deserted except for a canoeist tryng to retrieve fishing tackle from the trees opposite the wharf. I had stopped to try and empty the loo, but the sanitary station shown on the map proved elusive. A quick crossing to Galleon Marine revealed that the sanitary station did not exist, and that plans for one were taking far too long coming to fruition. It seemed that they believed that priority should be given to the long pounds rather than spending money on the lock flights. The proprietor also muttered about rules when he heard that one of his his boats had gone down Deepcut Locks and returned the next day, as there is meant to be a rule that they should spend at least 24 hours in the short pound above St.Johns before returning. So we carried on. At the Barley Mow we found the warden who had let us up Deepcut busy cutting the willow tree that obstructed the approach to the bridge. The dredger was being used as a workboat, and completely blocked the canal, but they soon moved it enough for us to squeeze past. Caelmiri was tied up, Pat and Sandy clearly at the pub (again!). At this point it started to rain, so up went the brolly, and we carried on. There are too many bridges low enough to make it pointless putting the hood up, and besides, the perspex in my windscreen is now almost opaque, and I prefer to see where I am going. It was still raining when we reached the swing bridge, but this time it swung easily, and by the ease with which the lock could be removed it was clear that the troubles of the day before had been caused by thermal expansion. We stopped for lunch at the Fox and Hounds before continuing on to Reading Road Bridge, where we found a fisherman and his wife(?) occupying two of the bollards. The latter was a starer - every time I looked up she was looking directly at me. Hazel cured this - she took her glasses off so she couldn't focus on her, and stared back. After five minutes the woman was still staring, but then looked away and she and her companion packed up and left. We felt safer leaving the boat then, and went to shop in Fleet, which has all services that you could want, including one of those ironmongers that retain the good old-fashioned atmosphere - nails by the pound sort of place. In common with all such places we couldn't get Hazel's wheelchair in, but they had the sealant that I needed to cure the slight leak at the bottom of the front window. The weather had cleared after lunch, so we pottered on with Caelmiri towards Ash, and we both moored for the night just past Eelmoor Bridge. The only heron of our trip was just along this section, and the planes from farnborough kept quiet overnight. Day 6: Tuesday June 30th - Farnborough to Deepcut. We had booked in to join Caelmiri down the locks on Wednesday, so we had only a short journey ahead of us. they went on ahead to have breakfast at Ash Lock, and we followed to join them shortly after. Farnborough Road Bridge is even more worrying from the west as the roof dips more and more as you go through, but we were still able to get under without moving the wheelchair. Sandy and Pat joined us for coffee while we slowly filled the lock. We carried on over Ash embankment and the new aqueduct, this time with much less crosswind. The lakes around were still busy with fishermen, although the canal was much quieter than on the previous visit. We shopped at Ash Wharf, finding three 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles, two brand new, at the charity shop, for 5 pounds in all, a real bargain. As I have said before, this is a handy shopping stop, much more convenient (but less comprehensive) than Fleet. We carried on and had lunch in Greatbottom Flash. It was a lovely sunny stop, and there were plenty of grebes and coots to watch. The parent grebes were busy feeding their young, finding fish after long dives, but to Hazel's astonishment, while she was watching one of the young grebes, an adult coot came by and fed it! Extraordinary behaviour. After lunch we moored at the Canal Centre, and after a good rest Hazel had a shower and then we went on to join Caelmiri at Lock 28 to await our descent in the morning. -- Tony Clayton 'Linton', Godalming Wharf Home Page http://www.tclayton.demon.co.uk ... Don't dispute death unless you've lived through it.