A lot can change in a week.
People, scenery, nature, and weather can all be feelgood (or depressing) factors, but this week they’ve been positives.
As the countryside unfurled from flat fields to rolling hills ahead of us, and white horses cut in chalk have appeared alongside the boat, we have continued to make our way west on the Kennet and Avon Canal. Not brilliant for work as the wifi and phone signals have been patchy, but it has been good to have evenings without streamed TV, or radio. Having to talk to each other, plus days of less challenging locks (ground paddles aplenty allow for more controlled operation and we are now on the descent) have healed some of the earlier raw emotion generated by this waterway.
We have also met some incredibly interesting and genuinely nice people in the past week, had a close encounter with Jim Lloyd (aka the Prof) from The Archers in a village shop, and been soothed by wildlife surrounding our floating home.
But first to a Very Special Bear who gained Royal Approval. In 23 destinations across the UK prior to the Paddington in Peru film being released last year, Paddington Bear statues on benches were installed to the delight of fans young and old. In Newbury, home of Michael Bond, creator of the delightful bear, there was an outcry when two drunken RAF engineers destroyed Paddington. In true Paddington fashion good prevailed – they were prosecuted and Paddington was restored to everyone’s delight, but particularly local man 64-year old Anthony George.
He happily let me photograph his leg in a Hungerford coffee shop when we met last week. His very own Paddington was tattooed ahead of the re-unveiling of the Newbury bear. He wants people to be “more Paddington. If we all look after each other like Paddington’s label says we should, we can make the world a better place.”
Billy who I met while we sheltered from a sudden downpour under a tree alongside Froxfield Middle Lock felt the same. His travel voucher from London had got him to Newbury and he decided to walk from there to Bristol. He said going along the canal made him feel safer. He told me he had found people to be friendlier and kinder alongside the water, but he still declined a hot mug of tea (obviously my tea making abilities have become public knowledge), saying he needed to press on with his 61 mile walk. He was very pleased to have picked up a discarded camping chair with carry bag from a fisherman who said the back had broken. Billy reckoned there was no need to have a chair back if you sit upright!
I think he’s right – people on the waterways come from so many diverse backgrounds, but we all enjoy the peace and the calm of surrounding nature, maybe we are more accepting, more aware that everyone is different. We are sharing the same environment, and sometimes we live in close quarters not just with nature but with nearby boaters, and in some situations we have people walking past our windows on towpaths gongoozling in at our cosy home. People are generally taken at face value, and often maybe because we may only encounter each other fleetingly, people often confide in total strangers in a way I have not found in bricks and mortar living.
Boaters even when they end up back in bricks and mortar homes continue to be accommodating and supportive of those still on the water. Catherine at Torrent Duck Cover Repairs did a short notice awesome job for us in repairing our cratch cover which was beginning to have issues thanks to wear and tear. Not only did she make herself available to complete incredibly efficient and effective repairs including perfectly colour matched reinforcing patches, she did it whilst we took time to explore her local town of Frome, after giving us an invaluable insider’s guide as to what we should see and do. Her repair work was rapid, and excellent quality so we highly recommend her if you need boat, tent, caravan or trampoline cover repairs, or a guide to Frome!
Back on the water we had the fun of sharing locks with Tarn the coal boat and her crew of Mike and Myrtle. We also shared a few beers and an impromptu meal aboard Preaux as the heavens opened. Another night the roof garden was automatically watered! The courgettes are loving the downpours.
Further on we encountered the delightful owner of a private wharf who let us moor up so we could do some visiting as the visitor mooring was full. He bought the place 10 years ago and was busy rebuilding and expanding it. The main wharf house was surrounded by a beautiful established garden with espaliered pears and towering hollyhocks – I do appreciate seeing them because there’s no way I can grow them on the boat!
We have though seen trees on boats this week – on widebeams and growing from rear button fenders. I also saw a handcrafted wooden arch on the bow of a boat for sweet peas. I thought that was a fabulous idea. Armed with buckets of soil for depth and the spectacular seeds produced by gardening guru and boater Higgledy Garden I’m sure it would become a fragrant paradise. If I didn’t have a cratch cover, or travel so much, I know that would make a spectacular display.
On then to All Cannings with its wonderfully well stocked Community Village Shop. I was quite taken aback to find the gentleman behind the counter was not wearing a name badge declaring him to be Jim Lloyd. This though is a shop which is as valuable to the community as it is to the boaters. It made me think – Ambridge has only one boat on the River Am it appears, that of Rex Fairbrother. Perhaps after the Kennet and Avon we should go and hunt down a mooring on the Am, from where we could enjoy the hospitality of The Bull and the expansive range of products at the Village Shop. Rex, as a boater is, of course, one of the nicest most accepting people in Ambridge. Well done Archers scriptwriters.
As this blog goes live we are preparing to descend the Caen Hill flight – the last of the Seven Wonders of the Waterways we’ve yet to experience. We are buddying up with Tarn and once we are down we aim to enjoy some much needed family time.
Pickingupducks 