From tony@amsware.freeserve.co.uk Sun Jul 4 10:52:08 1999 Date: Sun, 4 Jul 1999 10:54:50 +0100 From: Tony M Reply-To: Canals To: Canals Subject: Trip report - Reading to Aldermaston (Long) Back at the beginning of time, (well it feels like it now even though it was only just over a month ago), Helen and I were offered the use of 'Blue Heron' which we naturally couldn't refuse. Thanks Stan and Judy. So here's a couple of reports on our time afloat. Weekend one was May bank holiday weekend, I'd originally planned to drive up to The Braunston show on the Sunday or Monday but with the chance to do some boating this idea was soon scrapped. So we arranged to get Blue Heron out of the Marina on the Friday afternoon. I took her up to the Tesco's moorings on the Thames and stocked up on supplies before moving on to the River Kennet. Plan being to tie up behind Reading gaol on Chestnut Walk until saturday afternoon, this allowed us to stay on board overnight but be within walking distance of Helen's place of employment. An uneventful night when for the first time in ages we could just relax and watch the world go by,. Saturday morning came, Helen went to work and returned just after three by which time I'd spent the day cleaning brass and washing the boat down and generally lounging around. So we set off, our target was Aldermaston, although it didn't really matter how far we achieved over the weekend. My first challenge came when pressing the button for the traffic lights at brewery gut -they stayed red, I rapidly found out how Blue Heron behaves while "treading water", and so we sat there and sat there and sat there for what seemed like hours but was in fact less than five minutes, just waiting for the green light to show. Our first surprise was how the new Oracle shopping centre was progressing, this is going to be a very pleasant cruise through here when it's finished, although I think the building planners goofed and should have allowed for a couple of temporary moorings for shopping. County lock came and went without incident,but by the time we'd reached Fobney lock the sky in the distance had grown dark and we could see that there was a storm in progress, the lightning flashes being quite spectacular in the distance. So we entered Fobney lock and then the rain came down, very lightly at first, which made the humid air very pleasant and neither of us complained about getting slightly wet. After five minutes of this Helen asked for her waterproof as the rain was beginning to get stronger, along with the wind it was very obvious the storm was coming our way, I'd just had time to give Helen her coat when the heavens opened, boy did I get wet in thirty odd seconds. We decided that as the electrical storm was now coming to ground around us that as soon as we had cleared the lock (there was a boat coming down even though they hadn't reached us at this point) we would tie up and ride out the storm. Fifteen minutes, one cup of tea and a plate of sandwiches later we were on the move again, the air was much more pleasant and cruising once again became a relaxed event. We arrived at 'The Cunning Man' by Burghfield Bridge just after 6.30 and found to our joy that there was mooring space available. We tied up, had dinner and then went for the proverbial pint (or three). This pub has changed a lot since I was here last, it's only a fifteen minute drive by car from home but we never come here. The pub itself is still here but there's now been a Harvester restaurant built on the back and side, the Gardens are still enormous by some pub standards and the kids have their own playground. Surprisingly the pub is a stop off point for the younger generations who like to go clubbing in town. So Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and er......... Knackered! True to form I was up just after six the following morning, (I wish I could get up during the week!). Pottering about on the boat quietly on a boat isn't easy when you know 'the other half' likes to stay in bed until gone eight. Breakfast (full fry up) over and we are on our way again just after ten. No interesting incidents today and we reach Aldermaston just after four having shared locks and swing bridges with a group from Newbury on her fathers boat. Brilliant sunshine all day. Aldermaston lift bridge is out of action, well not quite, it's being operated by a contractor, it turns out that the pump house for the hydraulics had burnt out all the circuitry and it had to be constantly monitored when being operated because the engineers were waiting for a complete set of circuit boards to arrive from the manufacturers. We passed through the bridge, winded and tied up between the lock and the bridge. the operators were returning at 8 o'clock Sunday Morning to start another twelve hour day. Dinner tonight was taken at The Butt inn, a small pleasant pub about five minutes walk along the main road. They do a nice Chilli-con- Carne here. The pubs a bit basic but the foods good and reasonably priced too. I'd recommend it to anyone stopping here. Michael Cobb might like to comment on the pub as it's his local. (I found out later in the week). So the following morning we're up early to get breakfast over, ready to attack the bridge when the operator arrives at eight. Seven o'clock in the morning I can hear the lock being emptied, ten minutes later a certain 'Ragdoll' and her accompanying boat 'Beringaria' appear beside us. They didn't know that the bridge was shut off and would have to wait until eight. They were heading back to Thames and Kennet Marina for a stop-over between filming assignments. Our run back to Reading was totally uneventful and achieved in a little under eight hours, Mind you we did have most of the locks against us as Ragdoll and Beringaria were ahead of us. Monday night I spent on board the boat alone, purely on account that I don't like to leave somebody else's boat overnight in Reading, unattended. Tuesday morning and Andy arrived just after Helen had called in on her way to work. Andy and I took 'Blue Heron' back to the Marina where she is temporarily berthed. And that was my first proper weekend boating in Best part of eight years over with. I was looking forward to the next one already. I'd like to publicly take this opportunity to thank Stan and Judy for allowing us the use of Blue Heron in their absence. And to thank Andy Greener and Jan for being around to let us in and out of the Marina. Thank you all. Best Regards Tony M --- The UK Waterways Network - http://www.ukwaterways.net/ * bringing the inland waterways community together * You are currently subscribed to canals as: george@adiva.com To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-canals-407N@ukwaterways.net