We might have been more reluctant to leave Timsbury, had it not been for the telecom heavy machinery that arrived this morning, and promptly began digging up the road in noisy fashion.  For a quiet country village, there has been a lot going on this week.  With a relatively short drive to Shrewton, we hung around till late morning before setting off.

Our first stop was at the Dundas Aqueduct, one of two such structures that carries the Kennet Avon Canal across two deep valleys, avoiding the need for a long series of locks.  The towpaths which once catered for the huge draft horses that pulled the narrowboats when they were loaded with coal, now provide a perfect place for walkers and cyclists to meander along without any significant elevation gain.  The car park is about 10 minutes walk from the aqueduct and turning basin, along a leafy trail. We noticed that with an increase in the temperature, has come an increase in humidity.

At the turning basin there were numerous narrow boats.  One was enterprisingly selling ice creams; ideal for canoeists to pull up alongside and reward themselves.  Another had been rented by a group of ladies on their first narrowboat holiday.  Overheard: “Its been quite stressful, the boat doesn’t go the way we want it to”.  We crossed the aqueduct, and took some steep steps down so we could see it from below.  This is the point where the Somerset Coal Canal joins the Kennet Avon Canal; the café near the junction was doing good business on a nice sunny day.

We spent a bit longer here than planned, and decided to save the Avoncliffe Aqueduct and the Tithe Barn for another day – there’s an hour long walk between the two, which would be best done when we have more time.  So we skipped ahead to the other famous feature along the route – the Caen Hill Locks. An amazing engineering feat, this flight of 29 locks rises 237 feet over 2 miles.  Sixteen of the locks are on the steeper part of the hill.  It can take the best part of a day for a narrow boater to manoeuvre through all of the locks, and doing so is something of a rite of passage, apparently.  We decided it would be incredibly difficult with just two people.

We timed it perfectly, arriving to see two boats tackling the locks together.  One boat had two teenage boys who seemed keen to provide the muscle to open the gates.  The girls took care of the ropework – a team effort.  They had plenty of spectators, and Ian even helped swing one of the gates open.  The locks fill surprisingly quickly, but it would be quite a concentrated effort to navigate them all, positioning the boat carefully each time.

Having decided that narrowboating is not in our future (unless it’s purely as passengers, along for the scenery), we headed for our new home.  We are staying just east of Shrewton Village for the next week, close to Stonehenge.  The house is much older than The Cobblers, but roomier, with bedroom and bathroom upstairs.  It is certainly quiet – let’s hope for no overnight dramas.