This past weekend Peter Calcutt one of my walking buddies who I met through our joint association with the Backpackers Club came and camped for a couple of nights with us.....
It's always a pleasure to see Peter and so far this year he has managed to visit us on four occasions. Once when we were down on Dartmoor... twice at Verwood and now here at Sells Green...
As usual we spent a lot of time talking about some of the many backpacking trips that we have done together over the years as well as spending many an hour in conversation trying to put the world to rights.....
We did manage to fit a short walk into the weekend as well though....
We decided to go for a walk along the towpath but in the opposite direction to the Barge Inn that I mentioned in my last post....
Our plan was to walk to the top of the Caen Hill Locks and stop for a break at the cafe which is situated at the top of the flight before returning to the campsite via the same route...
For those of you who don't know... the Caen Hill Locks are a flight of locks on the Kennet & Avon Canal between Rowde & Devizes.
There are 29 locks in total and they have a rise of 237 feet in two miles or to put it another way a 1 in 44 gradient.
The locks come in three main groups...
The lower seven from Foxhangers Wharf Lock to Foxhangers Bridge Lock cover three quarters of a mile.
The next sixteen locks form a steep flight in a straight line which goes up the hillside. These are designated as a scheduled monument apparently....
A final six locks continue into Devizes....
Our walk would take us past the first 23 locks. The cafe is situated at the top of the main flight of sixteen locks and you can sit outside with a coffee and watch the narrow boats slowly navigate their way to the top of the hill...
It takes 5 - 6 hrs to traverse the locks in a boat so our walk was far quicker.....
Below are some images that I took during our walk...
It's always a pleasure to see Peter and so far this year he has managed to visit us on four occasions. Once when we were down on Dartmoor... twice at Verwood and now here at Sells Green...
As usual we spent a lot of time talking about some of the many backpacking trips that we have done together over the years as well as spending many an hour in conversation trying to put the world to rights.....
We did manage to fit a short walk into the weekend as well though....
We decided to go for a walk along the towpath but in the opposite direction to the Barge Inn that I mentioned in my last post....
Our plan was to walk to the top of the Caen Hill Locks and stop for a break at the cafe which is situated at the top of the flight before returning to the campsite via the same route...
For those of you who don't know... the Caen Hill Locks are a flight of locks on the Kennet & Avon Canal between Rowde & Devizes.
There are 29 locks in total and they have a rise of 237 feet in two miles or to put it another way a 1 in 44 gradient.
The locks come in three main groups...
The lower seven from Foxhangers Wharf Lock to Foxhangers Bridge Lock cover three quarters of a mile.
The next sixteen locks form a steep flight in a straight line which goes up the hillside. These are designated as a scheduled monument apparently....
A final six locks continue into Devizes....
Our walk would take us past the first 23 locks. The cafe is situated at the top of the main flight of sixteen locks and you can sit outside with a coffee and watch the narrow boats slowly navigate their way to the top of the hill...
It takes 5 - 6 hrs to traverse the locks in a boat so our walk was far quicker.....
Below are some images that I took during our walk...
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| The entrance to Foxhangers Marina |
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| One of the locks on the lower section |
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| Lock gates |
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| Narrow boats traversing one of the locks |
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| Another boat in a lock.. |
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| Always lots going on along the towpath |
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| The 16 locks of the main flight... |
2 comments:
Done that walk and the other one you did to the pub. Truly a lovely site and great walks along the canal . Anyway you can alert your followers to you new posts as I am able to from my blog as I could do with a prod to follow your travels as we are sooooo busy now you know! Lol
*Gideon Howe*
It's a nice walk in both directions isn't it Gids....
By the way..if you are soooo busy I must be comatose....:-)
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