Saturday, 14 March 2015

Lapworth and Hockley Heath



As expected we woke on Friday morning to the sound of pouring rain.  It eased off by 11.30 so we set off for Kingswood junction.  It was cold so it was a Rasta day – the first for a while.


It had felt and sounded like it was raining all night and the mud coloured water proved us right.  It was a shame it had rained as the towpaths had started to dry out which makes walking more pleasurable.

One of the first locks we went through was leaking through the brickwork on the side.  Once this starts happening the earth behind the wall starts getting washed out and in the end the wall collapses.

We stopped for lunch at Kingswood junction and then headed up the Lapworth flight of 22 locks.  One of the locks on the flight of 22 collapsed a few years ago. When it was rebuilt they made it two feet shorter and put hydraulic winding gear on for some reason.

Without a drone or helicopter it's difficult to get a picture of the whole flight - probably just as well as it would probably put us off doing them!


These geese were guarding the next lock.

We had a wry smile when we saw this boat.

One of the bridges still had this reel attached to it. It was used in the horse drawn days when the towpath crossed from one side to the other.  Apparently it stopped the tow line getting tangled up on the bridge.
 

We went through our first lift bridge since we were on the Kennet and Avon a few years ago.  Unfortunately for Karen this was a manually operated one which was a bit tough after doing 29 locks in the day.

It turned out to be a beautiful afternoon and evening and we would never have thought we would have done 29 locks today when we woke up to pouring rain.

Here are the 29 locks we ascended today.





























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