Cycling the Canal

Saturday morning dawned - it was difficult to tell if the heavy rain during the night had stopped for a while or if was just taking a little breather - but a peak of sunlight from behind the clouds was enough for me to say 'Let's go'. So we strapped our bikes on to the car (using the new bike rack - well not so new - but first time tried) and headed off to Bradford on Avon. Our aim to cycle the Avon Kennet Canal tow path from that small town to another small town about 12 miles away called Devizes. The path got a bit muddy in places and a bit bumpy in others, but with the autumn sun creeping from behind the clouds and the golden leaves every where it was a great ride. The trip was far more interesting that I could have imagined. In a short space of two miles there are 29 locks (Harry and I were pleased that we hadn't chosen that canal to boat along with Jan - Jan and I would have been on and off the boat far too often and it wouldn't not have been particularly relaxing working all those wooden barriers. It did bring back heaps of good memories of our canal trip and now we can say we have walked, canoed, boated and cycled along a canal paths). In one part there were 16 locks (known as the Caen Hill Locks) close beside each other and as we rode past them up the hill we counted them and stopped to take photos (no, it wasn't because we were out of breath). It's not really a very steep hill but given that canals need 'flat' it was an interesting challenge for the engineer John Rennie. Because of the steepness of the terrain there was not the space to use the normal arrangement of water between the locks and so instead he designed large side ponds beside the locks to store the water needed to operate them (I initially thought they were for canal boat users who got tired and just wanted a break - but I was wrong again). Devizes is one of those little towns you could easily drive through and think there was not a lot there. A friendly policeman in the car park told us there is a castle (a folly), but besides a church, a little market, a few little shops and the Wadworth Brewery there didn't seem to be a lot there. However, we did stop to buy some postcards and I saw the following story about the Wiltshire Moonrakers.

Many years ago Revenue Customs men were chasing a band of smugglers through Wiltshire. To hide their booty the gang threw it into the village pond as they galloped by. They returned a few nights later to retrieve their illicit hoard. While raking through the pond they were surprised by a local policeman. 'What's going on here?' he asked 'We're fishing for cheese' they replied looking at the reflection of the full moon. The policeman rode on. 'These locals are too stupid for words' he thought.

We didn't explore Devizes much cos we were on a mission. After the 4th puncture in Harry's front tyre (well one puncture but it didn't want to get fixed) we needed to find a cycle shop to stock up on glue, patches (we found some good self-adhesive ones which work wonders) and finally a new inner tube to get us back to the car before dark. The locals were friendly - a number of them came up to us, while we had a pump in one hand and a patch in the other and said 'ooh have you got a puncture' with a friendly smile which we returned with a 'Yes we have'. On waking up this morning and taking our bikes outside to wash the mud off (and our jackets, trousers and shoes) we discovered Harry now had two flat tyres. So, guess what he is going to do on Sunday night!! We arrived back in Bristol to the thundering and whizzing of the annual fireworks display in Clifton. It had started to rain quite heavily, and with the curiosity of who won the New Zealand election (it made Page 32 of the Sunday papers here), and the prospect of watching the All Blacks play Scotland on free tv at an hour that wasn't in the early morning we settled in for the night. Harry just hasn't had enough rugby this year, cos after the All Blacks game he watched highlights of the Pacific Island, England game and then the Wales, South Africa replay before climbing into bed tired from the days activities. We're looking forward to finding a pub in Ireland to watch the All Black Ireland game - should be fun - but for safety we might wear green rather than black.

Sunday, was a slow start - we had been given free tickets to the thermal spa in Bath by a girl at my work (really nice considering they are £22 each) and so we spent a lazy Sunday morning washing bikes, skyping and preparing dinner before spending the afternoon lying in the hot pools at the top of the building (open air and in the rain three stories up, looking across Bath at the same height as the church spire), lazing in the steam rooms - different rooms had euchalyptus, frankincense, mint or lavendar perfume so we tried them all, cold high pressure showers and an indoor pool. The pools are right across the road from the Roman Baths and so we were what the Romans and Celts did over 2000 years ago and more recently what the 'well-to-do' did in Victorian times - come to sample the thermal waters of Bath. There was a restaurant (the menu was in the inside of the lift but with no prices so that gave us a good indication of the cost) we didn't use but instead we wandered around looking for a little place for afternoon tea. We stumbled into the restaurant at the old Roman Baths - and given that there was live music - were not surprised that afternoon tea cost £34 each - imagine we wouldn't have wanted any dinner - we could have had a devonshire tea for £8.95 each - but I usually start converting that to NZ dollars and the temptation just goes...

It was Remembrance Day here today - 11 November. It wasn't very nice weather and we couldn't find any details about remembrance parades so unfortunately did not go. However, in the paper there was a front page article about how health and safety is beginning to impinge on personal rights in an attempt to eliminate danger from our lives (an impossible task I would think). An 88 year old war veteran was deemed to be too old to carry his regimental flag this Sunday. He must have been devastated as it would have been such an honour and obviously was fit enough to manage the task. Also in the paper is an article on a council banning their staff from using the saying 'singing from the same hymn sheet' - the reason - it could offend athiests!!