Weyting.......

Day 3 - Weyting at Weybridge
(pictures from Along the Wey, which did not make the blog)

A lovely sunshiny day, and no rain!

Yesterday we decided that even if today was dry there was no wey the river flow would be slower, so we would not be able to move.

Therefore we caught a train and made our wey to Sidcup to see Ian's Mum.

Jumble has to come with us when we travel awey from the boat and is really good travelling on trains, however weyting outside when we take Mum out to lunch is a different matter.

Today we went to the butchers on the wey and having a bone to chew helps!
We got back to Tacet at 6 o'clock, the boat that was moored behind us has gone, but I guess not down the river.

Staying Put

I don't think it has stopped raining all day. Now its raining very hard and the wind is picking up too. We'll be rocked to sleep tonight.
Navigation is not advisable on the Wey or Thames at the moment so it looks as though we are staying put here in Weybridge for now. Another boat has joined us above Town lock waiting for the ok to move on. The only problem is our tank is running low on water, we may have floods outside and a drought inside.
So today we have been shopping and stocked up the fridge, done some baking,

 re-fixed the cabin lace at the windows,

 read the papers and watched a DVD, as well as keeping an eye on the river level marker just across the road.

Too Much Water!

That's the situation we find ourselves in right now. We're still on the Wey navigation unable to get onto the last bit of river down to the Thames as there is too much water running down the river Wey.

That meant an earlier stop than planned here at Weybridge, rather close to the road, but it'll do.  We are also on a good bank edge so Tacet has been washed down and polished this afternoon bringing back her lovely shine, on one side anyway. No tellings when the other side will get done.

houseboats

Our trip on the Basingstoke Canal was short and sweet, it is only open to boats up to Brookwood, and the canal ranger follows you up and down caulking the top gates behind you to stop leaking. We were the only boat on the canal, moving that is and the ranger commented that 'nobody wants to come up here.' It's hardly surprising when you have to book to use the locks, can't go at weekends, pay £12 a day, and can only go 6 or 7 miles with no services.

getting smarter

It's been a bit of a wet trip, heavy showers but with sunshine in between, so I don't seem to have many photos...

with another storey

even grander

Tree felling in progress

Way up there.

And our views this morning at Brookwood....

And a few moments ago at Weybridge...

Godalming to Weybridge, Basingstoke Canal, 4 days

33 miles, 36 locks

Too Wet!

We were not planning on moving yesterday anyway, but boy did it rain. We were very close to Brooklands Museum on the site of the old Brooklands racing circuit. So after a lazy start to the day, a good long read in bed with the wind and rain doing its stuff outside, we had a bacon butties for breakfast and set off to walk to the museum.  It was a bit further than we thought, and just as we got to the site, the rain really fell down and very soon we were soaked. It was a long drive way in past the hotel, past Mercedez-Benz World and onto the Museum, and we had to walk it!

The 2,75 mile racing track was built  in 1907 by Hugh Locke-King and his wife, who were car racing enthusiasts and quickly became a favourite spot for racing and a number of world records were made here. It was well used up until WWII when it became a centre for aircraft building, and was not used as a race track again. The museum celebrates its racing history and other transport too.
In an old workshop built and used by Sir Malcolm Campbell to develop his Bluebird land-speed record holders there were many old racing cars, motorbikes and cycles.

Outside in the aircraft hangars were various old aeroplanes, (that's about as technical as I can be!) There was an interesting display about the work of Barnes-Wallis and the development of the bouncing bomb used to break the Mohne Dam in Germany.

There was also a collection of London buses in a large new garage building.

The race pavilion where the course clerks kept a close eye on proceedings, with rooms for the ladies and gentlemen to while away time waiting for races to start.

The 1:8 hill climb for testing cars.

And the famous concrete embankments, 100 ft wide, rising some 30 feet. It was built in 9 months with the majority of the concrete being mixed by hand.  It was a good day out, despite the rain. We had mostly dried out by this time, but were looking forward to getting home and lighting the fire.

Then with exceptionally good timing my brother rang to say he was close by and was coming to see us, so he picked us up and took us back to Tacet. So we were able to have dinner together and catch up on family news.



We have had a little bit of rain today, but not so bad, and we have moved up the locks as far as we are able to St Johns. More about that tomorrow.

Survivors

No rain today, so we set off this morning through Guildford lock to Dapdune Wharf where we stopped to look around at the old Wey barge there, Reliance, a horse drawn barge was built at Dapdune in 1931.

Harry Stevens was a barge building company here for many years up until the late 1960's when commercial traffic stoppped on the Wey.

The rudder looks enormous

Inside the boatman's cabin, quite roomy compared to the narrowboat cabins.

The National Trust have restored the site and keep it in good order, it is not open to the public on Tues or Wed, but we managed a sneak round as they were waiting for a school party to arrive.

In the boathouse a highly varnished slipper launch and day boat.

The old Smithy

The information centre with interesting displays and working models

This is a rotor wheel from a turbine used for pumping water from the River Wey to Pewley Hill reservoir behind the castle. It was housed in the Guildford Mill after it had ceased producing flour in 1894.



Do you remember the duck sitting on her eggs that we saw on Friday? She had chosen a rather strange place and we wondered what would happen when they hatched.

As we came past today we took a look in the top of the post to see if she was there.

But the sight was a sad one,

8 eggs with some hatched but dead, others partially out of the shell and Mum gone. Then I saw her, she was not alone...

She has one survivor

Tonight we are moored at the bottom of the Basingstoke Canal at Byfleet.





Wet,Wet, Wet

Today we have had rain all day. I know we need it, I'm not really complaining. But we have had more rain in the last week than we have had over the past year since we have been living on Tacet.

Nevertheless we set off this morning to take another look around Guildford, and walked to the Cathedral, quite a trek and uphill as it is set up high overlooking the town.

It is a modern brick built building, completed in 1961,  though started in the 30's, with not much ornamentation outside or in.



It was very light inside, with wide nave designed so that from every seat  you can see the high altar. I didn't really like it, though it is representative of the period.
Then dodging puddles and spray from passing traffic we came back down into the town and up the other side to the castle.

The remains of the keep on the hill has an exhibition inside and pretty gardens all around.  With a good view across the city to the Cathedral,

although rather dull in the rain today. After a quick visit to the Guildford Museum we made our way back to Tacet where we lit the fire and settled down with our books for the afternoon.