10 locks, 63 in total. It's been good to be moving again. Dunlin purred along, ably assisted by wind and, in some places, the current. The R. Kennet criss-crosses the canal, pushing and pulling the boat at the most inopportune times – by lock moorings, especially. (Note to novices – canals are shallow so narrowboats are flat-bottomed. Without a keel they go sideways very easily.) For many miles we ran alongside water meadows and were often accompanied by huge flocks of sand martins, swooping around us as nimbly as bats as they caught insects close to the water. We saw a kingfisher too – our first of the holiday. The horse-drawn barge was moored at Kintbury but was not carrying passengers today. Just west of Newbury the Kennet joined the canal again. This coincided with the ... read more

Thank you everyone for your comments. I don't seem able to reply via the website but we do appreciate your interest and can assure you that any scathing comments, particularly re loss of glasses, will not be forgotten..... Thank you to Sarah for identifying my slightly out of focus plant from yesterday - it's a Lesser Bulrush and apparently quite rare, so there you go. Still at Hungerford although the outlook has improved considerably. The lock at Newbury will be open for boats from 5pm tomorrow – I think they have rushed the repair because of the Bank Holiday this weekend so we're not complaining. No new gear boxes are available but the boatyard has managed to source a reconditioned one and will then have ours reconditioned and sold on – the ultimate in recycling. The ... read more

15 locks today, 53 in total. Filled up with diesel from a supply boat owned by Andy and Janine. They have 2 narrowboats, one for living and one that is converted for diesel, coal, etc. They run between Newbury and Bath and back again. We'd been hoping to run into them again, rather than go to a marina. Each litre gives approximately an hour's motoring. Andy is also a sign writer (he decorated Dunlin) and both he and Janine work at Glastonbury Festival each year. Shortly after we teamed up with a hire boat with a Dutch crew of three – luckily their English was infinitely superior to our Dutch and we all got along very well for the 14 locks today. These were reasonably spread out, not in a flight like those at Caen Hill. ... read more

3 locks today, 29 in total. Hooray – no frost this morning. We were joined bright and early by Matthew, Clair and Naomi for the last 3 locks into Devizes Wharf. We visited a food fair in the Market Square, part of Devizes Food Festival Week but sadly had no room in our small fridge for any of the delicious food, although we did buy some fudge! Devizes is a medieval market town which grew up around the original castle, long since disappeared. The Market Square became the focus in the 18th century and many of these buildings survive. By the 19th century Devizes held the largest corn market in the West of England and was also a centre for selling hops, cheese, cattle, horses and cloth, made by the many manufacturers of wool and silk ... read more

.... from Caen Hill Marina, Kennet & Avon - Point 1 on map. A cold but sunny morning, just perfect for the start of our journey so why are we still in the marina this evening? Rewind 22 hours to yesterday evening, almost bedtime and the onboard gas detector starts wailing. Throw open doors and windows, cut off the LPG at the tanks and decide what to do. No hob, no stove, no heating, and don't even mention my hot water bottle. At 6.30 this evening, after exhaustive tests by the heating engineer, we knew the score – no gas leak, faulty gas detector. We head off tomorrow.... read more