Sunday 10 July 2011

Unusual Locks and Swing Bridges

We left our mooring at Fobden Lock this morning at about 10:15 ...
... and made our way to the first lock of the day - Southcot 104 ...
 ... with its leaky top gates.
 Signs of dredging on the K & A ...
 ... and the tiniest baby coots moorhens you've ever seen!
 After Burghfield Lock (rather ordinary) we enter Garston Lock with its strange sides ...
... as you can see it's impossible to walk along the lockside - it actually fills with water as the lock fills ...
... my stern rope was only just long enough for me to hold on to.
Huge filled-in gravel pit lakes can be seen along this stretch and pill boxes abound too.
 Sheffield Lock with its unusual curved edges ...
... protruding bolts as well as sharp brick edges are ready to take a bit more paint off as you pass!
 Theale Swing Bridge ... when we arrived at the water point George realised that he'd lost the fob with the BW key on it plus 2 other keys ... he must have dropped them here.
 The moorings at Theale are good - I wonder if BW enforce the charges? We stopped here for lunch at 14:45 and would have stayed the night except that our water tank is empty.
Approaching Sulhamstead Swing Bridge opened by the boat crew that accompanied us through the last lock we continued on to the water point at Tyle Lock.  
Once the tank was full we reversed a short distance and are currently moored against the meadow. George walked back to Theale Swing Bridge to see if he could find his keys, but no luck - we wonder if the lone boater who passed us whilst we were having lunch picked them up - do we ask him if we see him again? Will he admit to having them?  If we do he will know which boat they will open. 
No good worrying though, we've got a good internet signal and TV too - can't be bad!

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