Caversham to Thatcham and Back
November 1997
This is a (probably inconplete) diary of the weekend. If you think I have left anything out then please email me and let me know.
Ben. Louise and Clare met at Cambridge station at around 4pm and caught the train to London. They then crossed London and on arriving at Paddington found that there was an Intercity train leaving very shortly. They got on this train and were comfortably settled when there was an announcement on the tannoy to the effect that their tickets were not valid on this train so they got off again quickly before the train could leave! They then found that there was a Thames Train also to Reading leaving in about 3 minutes time! So they made a manic dash across the station and just managed to make it. Although instead of nice comfortable seats they had to sit on the floor.
In the meantime, Alec and Andrew had been shopping in Tesco but had managed to forget the West Indian Hot Pepper Sauce - a vital thing on any narrowboat holiday! So having met Jonathan at Andrew's house, Andrew set of by bike to the boat and Jonathan and Alec make a trip to Waitrose to get the sauce, amusing the checkout girl considerably in the process!
Andrew, Alec and Jonathan eventually made it to the boat and Clare, Louise and Ben made it very soon afterwards having walked from the station (where they had managed to get something to eat including some very welcome pizza) and actually managed not to get lost despite Andrew's wonderful directions of 'wiggle right a bit and then left a bit'!
On arrival at the baot, we unloaded Alec's car and Alec then drove back to Andrew's, left the car there and cycled back to the boat.
That evening was spent mainly in comsuming two thirds of the weekend's cider supply and half the cheese whilst playing (for a suitably loose definition of the word) 'Cluedo Super Slueth'. This seemed to involve mainly Andrew being unable to remember the rules, Alec attempting to play it like bridge (a not altogether successful strategy) and lots of people making dodgy 'suggestions' (not accusations!) to other people, such as 'It was X in the engine room with Y and the rope...' The game eventually 'finished' when we decided that it was 3am, no-one had a clue what was going on and we were all knackered! (due to all those antics in the engine room, no doubt - ed).
The next notable event was the sighting of Richard on the towpath as a load cry of 'ALLLLLLLLLL the Lads!' alerted us to his presence. Using the well known 'zig-zag tecnique' we went left to pick him up, right to press the traffic light button and then on through the windy stretch (hence the need for traffic lights). When it was pointed out to Richard that he was supposed to have 'phoned us from the station he seemed completely unaware of this and in fact had completely failed to bring the mobile number with him which Andrew had 'phoned especially to give him the day before! It may be noted that Richard made many contributions to the weekend, not least of them being to shout at cows, a train and a herd of geese.. No, we don't know why either - although we suspect that he may be regressing to his 'anal phase'.
We then went through County lock where Clare tried pushing the bottom gate when the top gates had just been closed, forgetting that you have to let the water out first! (well, if they will build these locks with a fall of about a foot so you can't see the difference then what do they expect! - ed). We carried on up the river to Fobney lock which was vast, about 96' by 18', and very slow. This was followed by dead fish lock, so called beacuse Richard and Jonathan managed to fish a dead fish out of the chamber and balance it on the bottom lock gate. (Apparently this lock is actually called 'Tile Mill Lock' - I think 'Dead Fish Lock' sound much better - ed).
Next came Theale Lock which was scalloped, which whilst looking very pretty this meant that the top gate balance beam couldn't actually be reached when open as it hung out over the water! This was followed by a swing bridge, the first of many! This was perhaps the most impressive one though, in that we managed to hold up a queue of about 30 cars in both directions as it was electrically operated and very very slow! At this point, another boat came through the bridge with us, and joined us for most of the rest of the day. We continued on together to the next lock, which was de-gated and had a swing bridge. (Clare had the fun of doing this swing bridge all on her own, which involved some amusing antics getting from one side to the other!).
The next lock we encountered was 9'6'' deep, and had the amusing property of being a little enthusiastic when filling wih the gate paddles opened. Those sitting inside the boat were treated to a view of an impressive waterfall coming over the front and were extremely glad that they had shut the front door about 30 seconds earlier! As it was some water still leaked through the grating in the door!
Having recovered from the minor flood we progressed to Aldermaston (it may be noted here that due to the boat undergoing repainting at the time one side was a nice shade of battleship grey. This promtped Alec to use black insulation tape to write U32 on the side of the boat in an attempt to become the first narrow boat ever to be torpedoed. Strangely enough, this didn't happen..). Lift Bridge on the A340, which was rather impressive and this was followed by another scalloped lock. Soon after this, the other boat stopped to get some petrol (they were running on an outboard motor). Just before they left we discovered that the fact we were both mad enough to be out in November wasn't the only thing we had in common - both crews also had a Morris Minor owner!
By this stage, it was getting fairly dark. Ben, Louise and Alec walked along the towpath operating the locks to Thatcham where we moored up for the night - eventually - finding a place deep enough to moor was quite a challenge! We also experimented with a variant on 'harmonica fishing' here, when Andrew managed to drop the torch into the canal.
The rest of the evening was spent cooking and eating dinner and then going to the PUB! called 'The Ship' to use the 'facilities' and drink some Old Peculiar, before going back to the boat and going to bed.
We set off back the way we had come, at a rather later time than the previous day, people having actually managed to get some sleep! Andrew got the boat going soon to be joined by Ben and Clare. Meanwhile Alec and Richard made the traditional bacon and egg sandwiches for breakfast, which finished off the remains of the Hot Pepper Sauce.
It was raining. Lots. The somewhat reduced lock team lost a little of their Total Organisation at this point as everyone went on to the next lock before opening the gates for the boat to get out of the one it was in! But Mr Covlin saved the day, prompting Richard to shout "Cor! Speedy shark!"
A chapter of accidents followed at this point, with a tree knocking off the top off one of the gas cylinder boxes into the canal so we had to go back and collect it, using the pole. Soon after this, Richard appeared at the back of the boat to tell Andrew rather sheepishly that he had managed to break a window by trying to empty the bacon fat from the grill pan into the canal through it!
We carried on through lots of rain and lots of locks. Just after the lift bridge we met a small fibreglass boat going the same way as us. They not only managed to to remove the entire of the top of their boat at one lock in a quite impressive crash, but also knocked of one of their fenders! Luckily this was retrieved for them by Clare with the help of some friendly canoeists. This boat accompanied us all the way back to the Thames.
We reached Garston Lock,this is a unique turf sided lock and has been restored by BW. Being turf sided means it leaks and hence took about 30mins to fill, at about lunch time. The trouble with turf sided locks, is that the sides have a 45 degree angle as they rise, so they need a lot of water to fill them up! Given the amount of time it took to fill, we felt it should become unique by being the only quick setting cement sided lock. We then met our only other boat of the day at the degated lock, coming the other way so fortunately we didn't have to wind the thing back again. Seeing as it takes 68 turns each time this was welcome.
By the time we arrived at Dead Fish Lock, it was after 4pm and dark. Alec finally gave up driving to go in and get some lunch. Clare at some point decided that plastic gloves would be a good idea as she wrang out her wool ones for about the fiftieth time that day.
We then came into the outskirts of Reading with Alec driving again, and Ben walking along the roof of the boat with a torch to point out the branches sticking out into the canal. We got to County Lock at 5.15 at which point Jonathan and Richard left us as they both wanted to get home at a reasonable time. We went straight on through the traffic lights, which were with us since there wasn't be anyone else mad enough to be out at 5.30 on a Sunday like this! However the lock keeper at Blake's lock was about, although fortunately for the fibreglass boat he didn't come out and notice their missing licence!
We then turned onto the Thames and headed upstream. We came back through Caversham lock which had unfortunately had the power supply turned off so Alec got to wind the handle many many times again to make it go. Nearly home, we headed up under Reading bridge. Just after this, Andrew decided to test the turning circle of the boat - not bad, as it managed to turn around completely in the channel in one go! Finally, we came up under Caversham Bridge and safely back to the mooring where we once again said 'hello' to the swans.
Alec set off on Andrew's bike to go and collect his car. The ride was a little hard, and this turned out to be due to a punctured rear tyre. This made it rather tricky riding down hills as the wheel didn't want to stay in line in the rain. In the meantime, Andrew, Clare, Ben and Louise tidied up the boat and got thankfully changed into the things they had that most closely resembled the description of 'dry'. Alec arrived back just as Clare, Ben and Louise were setting off to walk to the station. By managing to retrieve a couple of left over cans, he manged the impressive feat of drinking nothing but beer between Friday lunchtime and Monday morning! Alec gave Andrew a lift home and Clare, Ben and Louise got the train back to Cambridge.
And there ended a sometimes wet, sometimes sunny, often cold but very enjoyable weekend on the canal.