Saturday 30 April 2016

Picturesque Pewsey

Arrived in Pewsey Wednesday 27th and got a mooring right by the Waterfront pub, needing a few provisions we decided to walk into the village, seeing Miss Lemons Wool Shop at the bottom of the hill I thought my crochet mad daughter would have loved it in there. We got very excited when we saw a Chinese takeaway an Indian restaurant and a Kebab House along with a co-op where we got our shopping, stopped and had a drink in a fab little pub well actually it was a shed attached to someones house serving real ale and cider ended up in the Indian restaurant the food was delicious.
Thursday morning bright and clear but very chilly which didn't help when Mark had to take a dip into the icy canal water to retrieve the fuel filler cap that he'd dropped in.
That evening we went to the Waterfront bar and met a great band who were doing a charity gig at the open mic night. Really great band, check out their website!

Wednesday 27 April 2016

REAL Rescue dogs!

Alfie and Charlie drying out on our sofa after being rescued from a sinking boat in Cadley lock
We are finally beyond Bedwyn and contrary to our blog title There are NO shops, actually apart from a very overpriced village store where we stocked up on a few essentials which in a larger store I could have done my weekly shop for the same price .... Lesson learnt.
We moored up at Crofton bottom lock it was a bit chilly which did not take away the beauty of the countryside or the 2 huge hares chasing each other in a field adjacent to the boat.Travelling on mid morning we were on the approach to Cadley lock when we could see blue lights and 2 fire engines on the bridge next to the lock,it turned out that a boat had been caught on the cill ( a ledge)  and sunk in minutes with an elderly lady and a couple of dogs on board. A queue of boats were moored up unable to get through the lock, luckily nobody was seriously injured and Mark and I ended up with the two Yorkies on our boat keeping them warm as they had gone down with the boat and were shivering (I'm a bit concerned I was more worried about the dogs than the humans) to make matters worse it  was freezing and started to snow. Due to the sunken boat in the lock we stayed here for the night and have woken up to beautiful sunshine we are going through make our way to Pewsey today which we have been told is a village time forgot , should be interesting ..... Louise

Monday 25 April 2016

This is mark speaking....

Just in case there should be any doubt as to where I Stand on I.T. Matters........I bloody hate it!!!
All iPads, phones and the like should be burned along with the crappy bag of coal that we are currently enduring, quite honestly I am on the verge of burning my pants to get the bloody fire going 😡
Apart from that everything's great
M

Sunday 24 April 2016

God knows how....but here are some pictures! Hopefully







AND THE ADVENTURE BEGINS

Well we finally did it, packed our jobs in and rented our houses out for a life aboard
NB SPEAKEASY (  nee " JOYCE ") I really couldn't live with that name due to an old neighbour of mine ...enough said.We have been moored up in Ham Manor Marina in Newbury on the K&A for nearly 2 years and met some lovely people, and due to the nature of our jobs we only had limited time for cruising and never got further than Bedwyn, hence the title. The"There Will Be Shops " bit stems from me wanting to buy everything there and then thinking we would never see civilisation for years. Mark and I met 3 years ago but have never lived together so putting ourselves on a 55ft steel tube will be a real test and a week in to our adventure we are still sitting at the same end of the boat, obviously there will be updates. We set sail on Monday 18th but I had to leave and nip home to tie up some loose ends leaving Mark in Kintbury.I rejoined him in Hungerford on the Thursday. We left on the Friday and while trundling along we were treated to an amazing display from a stag sporting huge antlers doing some sort of courtship routine to his harem of about 6 does.Friday night spent at Froxfield and then onto Great Bedwyn which is where we are now, we finally get to go "Beyond Bedwyn "tomorrow and I will be expecting shops.
PS Having just spent most of the evening setting up this blog, we have yet to suss out how to add photos, any help gratefully received before this I Pad ends up in the canal ...Thanks