Dawn over Devizes

George had sad news of a family bereavement so we needed to find a mooring where there was sure to be a space for us in a place where Enterprise Cars could get to us so we booked into Devizes Marina for three nights to enable George to attend the funeral on Tuesday and our son and his family can meet up with us on Thursday.

 Dawn over Devizes Marina on Tuesday morning at 05:28

We left our mooring near Wide Water at about 09:30 on Monday and saw our first sign of the white chalk horse about half an hour later ...

 ... as we approached the moorings at Honey Street - if we'd not being going to the marina we would have liked to have stopped here but no spaces at all ...

 ... wrong - these are the 24-hour visitor moorings just around the corner, and there was plenty of space!

 Coooo .. this looks interesting ...

 ... out of the reeds we can see wonderful countryside ...

... and long lines of forever moored boats ...

... but at least the 48-hour moorings near All Cannings Bridge are empty - reminder for our journey back!

 ... and on the other side of the bridge .. guess what?  Yes, more boats ...  As we cruised past this long line I mentioned to George that we'd now been on the Kennet and Avon Canal for 4-weeks and so far had not seen a BW patrolman at all ...

 ... when lo and behold, less that 10 minutes later, here he is on his bike taking note!

 Rolling hills ...

 ... and a cute boat!

 Allington Swing Bridge - lucky us, there was a boat coming through the other way ...

 ... and then we were into the reeds again ...

... and out for a few minutes and in again around the bend ...

 ... passing the remains of Horton Fields Swing Bridge ...

 ... back into the weeds - and another boat, this one a bit wider than us!

 Molly is concentrating as we approach Horton Chain Bridge - we've got the hood up again today but not because the weather is bad - it's just too, too hot!

 Volunteers to BW cutting back the willows ...

 I'm assuming that the chap on the gunwale is a paid member of BW staff and is in charge of the boat ...

 ... here's one they prepared earlier!

 Lucky again - the boat in front of us has allowed us through Bishop's Canning Swing Bridge without us having to stop - thanks guys!

 Same horse, or a different one? They do seem to gallop about a bit!

Approaching the last bridge of the day, the marina is just past these trees on the right.

Our plan was to move down the Caen Hill flight on Thursday when our son and family met up with us and would provide us with extra crew, but the weather forecast for just about the whole country is at least heavy rain and in a lot of places thunder storms - so we might just leave the marina, moor up at the pub at the top of the flight and spend the day quietly with them, have a pub meal before they leave and do the flight on Friday when the weather is better.  Lucy, grand-daughter number 2 will stay with us for a few days and then we'll swap her for her brother Ed for a few days next week - can't wait!