Goodbye K&A, Hello Thames
Burghfield Bridge to Tilehurst, Kennet & Avon Canal and River Thames, 7 miles 5 locks
The most welcomed sight around lunchtime today..
Not the prettiest of photographs to start my blog off this evening, but very significant. Under the bridge is Kennet Mouth, and that stretch of water ahead is the River Thames! 
We have been stuck on the Kennet & Avon canal for one reason or another for 6 months now, here is our bid for freedom!
Earlier in the day we pulled the pins at Burghfield Bridge, where yesterday we had a real taste of winter with a long period of snow..
Today though, after a bit of a cloudy start, the skies cleared giving us some sunshine. Very breezy which made for some tricky conditions on the tiller..
Southcot Lock has a lovely mill alongside which is now used as a private home. In fact the narrowboat just the other side of that bush on the far side behind No Problem is a boat that we fell in love with back when we were searching for our first boat. It is called Shalamar. We looked at her at Virginia Currer’s on the Slough Arm of the Grand Union Canal back in 2000, but for our first boat perhaps a vintage engine with a tiny wheel for a throttle and a lever for a gear change wasn’t on, but we always love seeing her when we do..
Lots of work being done here to some land just to the west of Fobney Lock.. This looks good. It was very much overgrown and unused before, and will be welcomed by the people of Reading just a stone’s throw away. Huge area they are working on.. bet they will also soon want some rain like the rest of us!
A good majority of the bricks at Fobney Lock are marked with the maker which I have never seen on any other lock.. Company in Lambeth by the look of it!.. And so on through Reading Oracle Centre..
Very, very quiet today as you can see. Hardly a soul about. I was very surprised as I looked at my watch it was noon.. it should have been bustling with people looking for lunch.. One more lock to go, and while Sir went to set it I noticed a bit of spring by the lock hut..
And so to the last lock on this canal, Blake’s Lock. This one is actually part of the Environment Agency and is sometimes manned by a lock keeper, but not today, and not any day we have passed..
Now we are on to some easy stuff..
That’s a much better way to raise the paddles don’t you think! Maybe British Waterways should replace all their lock gear with this system.. Ahem, I dream! 
A stop a Mr Tesco’s base just round the corner on the Thames to pick up some fresh bits and bobs before reaching Caversham Lock, the first for us on the Thames as we turn left toward Oxford. Time to chill as the lock keeper did all the work..
Our mooring this evening, and it was so nice to have dinner looking out of the dinette window at the expanse of the Thames along with it’s wildfowl of all sorts and sounds.. Ah, this is a bit more like it!
Sue
Updated 24th April 2012
March 5th, 2012 at 10:46 pm
Freedom Sue!!!!
Don’t think you will forget your time on the K&A in 2011-2012! Keep doing what you are doing – I look forwards to your blog everyday!!
Charlie
March 5th, 2012 at 11:30 pm
Charlie,
For sure you are right, there are lots of reasons I won’t forget. My father’s death in October is, of course, the main reason. It was quite emotional leaving the K&A to be honest. Sometimes things are tough, but I am on my way. It is what he would have wanted I’m sure..
March 6th, 2012 at 7:24 am
Hello Sue, Looking forward to my trip in April on the Kennet and Avon. i shall be representing the RCAG here in Ireland. The plan is to do the western end, Devices to Bath and return + other land based trips in between. We have been invited by the Wilderness group and a group from France also making the trip.
March 6th, 2012 at 8:48 am
Hi Sue
Glad you’ve escaped. Like they say, the K&A is a trip of a lifetime – just do it the once!
All the best
Bruce
March 6th, 2012 at 12:28 pm
Interesting read. We have just brought a nb moored at Frounds and ventured out onto the cut the other week – one lock and the 2 bridges west to the windy hole and back again. Plan to take Salar to her new mooring in Iver later this month – when the Thames locks are open. Not living onboard but hoping to use regularly. Might see you around the cut one day. Booked into Canal Cavalcade and trying to persuade the wife that we should enter the Rickmansworth festival.
March 6th, 2012 at 6:12 pm
Lovely photos yet again Sue. Up in the sunny midlands we have had two sunny days! Nice to hear the south is having snow, we get too much at times.
I bet you are loving the freedom of being on the move. Now where are you off to? Glous and Sharpness this year?!
March 6th, 2012 at 6:48 pm
Congratulations on your Great escape
March 6th, 2012 at 6:49 pm
Hi de hi
Welcome back.
Les
March 7th, 2012 at 11:35 pm
Alan,
Well that should be an interesting trip. You might get annoyed though at the continuous line of moored boats for most of the way on that trip, although you will pass some interesting looking boats!
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Bruce,
I am beginning to think that way too Bruce!
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Roger,
Congrats on your new boat, I am sure you will have some wonderful times aboard, and yes, hopefully we will meet somewhere on the cut. We may even be coming south on the GU at some point if there is any water at all!
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Kate, Norwyn, Les & Jaq,
Many thanks for that, yes it is great to escape, and what a wonderful place to having done so, the River Thames is a gem. Kate we are turning north at Oxford and planning on the River Nene for a while before returning south for the summer months..