Reading (changing plans)

Since the last blog update Karen hurt her back and finds it very uncomfortable to travel any distance in the car.  This caused us to change our plans and centre ourselves for a couple of weeks in an Airbnb in Reading which is home to some of our children.  This turned out to be rather fortuitous because our first grandchild was born on election day morning.  Ellis arrived ten weeks early weighing just 3lbs 3 ozs, but both he and Lauren are doing really well.  He will be in Reading hospital for a few weeks before being allowed home but with so many of the family living in the area, he will get plenty of visitors.  He is very strong for his size and age and was breathing unaided after a couple of days.

Lauren, Lewis & Ellis

The following day we met up with Ken & Annie to get acquainted with their narrowboat on the Kennet & Avon just outside Reading.  They are known by their friends as K&A on the K&A or I suppose they could be AKA K&A on the K&A.  We are borrowing their boat during January and February so we have somewhere to live before we head back to France.  They are a lovely couple who have been liveaboard ccers (continuous cruisers) for the last five years but are moving back to dry land for grandparenting duties – ominously coincidental lifestyle to ours 😉

On Saturday we went for lunch with Jake, my youngest son and Dominique, his wife.  We then had a walk along the Basingstoke canal, partly to ease Karen’s back and partly to give Buddy some fresh air as he had been cooped up in the car while we were in the restaurant.  When we bring our boat back to the UK, we hope to cruise along the Basingstoke canal as it is one of the waterways we have yet to visit.  It’s one of those canals that is open some years and not others, depending upon the state of the infrastructure of the waterway, so we may or may not be lucky.

A waterway we have yet to travel

The patch we walked along was drained as a new bridge was being installed.  At least it meant we would find a stank if we got to the end of the dry section.  Sure enough, under the first bridge we found where stanking planks had been used to form the dam.  We spent a happy 15 minutes or so while Jake & Dominique took the mickey out of the stanking plank obsession 😊

Stanking planks in use on the Basingstoke canal

The Airbnb we are staying in is in the centre of Reading just off the Kennet & Avon so is ideal for walking Buddy.  The water flow is still very strong from all the recent rain, and the canal is currently closed to navigation as is the River Thames that it joins at the far side of Reading.  When we have cruised through Reading in the past, we have always been puzzled by a small narrowboat that stands in the garden of one of the rows of terrace houses that back onto the waterway.  We have been puzzled because it has looked unloved and unused and seems to be kept out of the water permanently.

When we walked past it this week, we noticed that it has now been painted and looks like it’s being used as a garden shed.  The odd thing is that the bows have now been cut off and are laying on the ground next to it.  Karen’s suggestion was that CRT were probably charging mooring fees as the boat was overhanging their water.  By cutting the front off, the owner may now be avoiding those fees.  We also got to thinking how the boat was lifted out of the water in the first place and Karen had the thought that during a flood (when water rises into the gardens), they took advantage of blocking up the boat while it was floating above the lawn.

Who knows, Karen may well be right