Two by Two

Wednesday 1st May
The sun was shining, the sky was blue, it was a perfect May day and we had the Devizes flight of 29 locks ahead of us to get us up the famous Caen Hill.
We slipped away from our quiet moorings, through the swing bridge and soon we were passing  nb Chance, with Doug and James standing ready to follow on so we could work the locks together.

James had his camera out ready and caught this rare picture of me steering and Ian directing proceedings from the front.

Did I mention the perfect weather, we were soon on our way up the first 7 locks at Foxhangers, before the middle section, the stunning line-up of the sixteen, like a regiment marching up the hill.

Ian and James soon got into a routine of keeping together, and entering and leaving the lock chambers two by two.

With Doug and me (Ian did some) fairly skipping along, we got into a good routine, and with help from the C&RT volunteers emptying locks ready for us, we did the sixteen locks in just 2 hours.

The wonderful views unfolded behind us as we climbed up, it really was a lovely day, maybe I already said that!

Once we got to the top, there was time to give the boat a wash and polish and after a bit of teasing from Doug and James, much encouragement and the generous gift of a bottle of T-cut, Ian even got to work bringing the colour back from pink to red.  I followed along with the polish and Tacet looks a lot better. It was good to have some help with the chores, we'll see what happens next time!

We arranged to eat out at the Black Horse later, well deserved we thought after the busy day.

Here we enjoyed good food, good company and good stories.  Thanks guys we had a lovely day. 

3.5 miles, 29 locks