Retirement with No Problem

Devizes Prison Bridge to March Lane Bridge (144), K&A Canal, 1.25 miles 19 locks

We met the first of the newly geared paddle winding gear, and for sure it was easier to turn, but a hell of a lot of turns to get them up and down…

Here Vic shakes his wrist after winding up this paddle!

It was great to meet up with Paul Balmer of Waterway Routes again who arrived with his windlass just as No Problem and Moore2Life pulled the pins this morning.. absolutely perfect timing.. and Lucy remembered Paul well giving him a huge welcome at the side of the first lock of the day.  Paul was delighted at the improvement in Lucy saying she was much more alert and bouncy as well as looking much better weight wise.  Paul was really pleased to see her happily running up the towpath on 4 legs .. “You would never know she had an accident at all now” he noted.

Just the three locks to do till we got to the top of the ‘flight proper’ as I call it.. and like a slide the locks spread out in front of us down the hill and into the valley below..

We were aiming for that white blob below, that is where the last lock in this flight of 16 is situated.  As you can see a beautiful day too.  We were very lucky.. a few pics this evening then of our trip down…

These are the huge side pounds to the right between each of the locks.  They are more like lakes and are extremely deep.  Plenty deep enough for a narrowboat to turn in there me thinks.. and here the distance between each of the locks..

This flight is almost precision engineering.. Chas and I lining up together to come out of one and into another side by side in a dead straight line apart I think for a couple of locks which were a couple of feet out of line.  But if you look carefully you will see Paul steering No Problem at this lock.. nervous though he was, he enjoyed sharing a couple of locks and taking No Problem down with Moore2Life.. it wasn’t long though before he was doing what he enjoys best.. locking and taking in the views!

We stopped for a cuppa about half way down.. the only place to stop is in the lock though, but there was nobody about today, and we had no boats behind or in front, nor were there any coming up the flight.. in fact we had the place all to ourselves!

Plenty of gongoozlers though, and some even gave a hand winding paddles up and down while other enjoyed taking pics of the boats.. after 3 very leisurely hours we emerged at the bottom..

I will always call this ‘The Awesome Flight’.  It is majestic and one of the wonders of the waterways especially on a day like today.. and we didn’t even share it with anyone.. we had just tied up to have lunch when the lock keeper came down on his quad bike and locked it up for another day..

We walked back up the flight to the car park with Paul in the afternoon.  I wondered whether we would see him again by car.. his new boat is due for completion in a few weeks time, and I am looking forward to visiting him for a change!

Thanks for today Paul, and good luck with the launch of new boat