Latest Adventures
Shangri La Drydocking 2023
Shangri La at Semington Shangri La Drydocking 2023. So in August we made the huge trip from Foxhangers down to Semington to give her a much needed drydocking. 5 Swing Bridges and 6 locks. We set out on the Sunday late morning, and arrived there mid afternoon....
On the Midland Waterways
Normally my posts are about trips on our own boat, but recently I did a boat moving trip, mostly on the midland waterways, from Eynsham to Tardebigge. Purpose of the trip was repositioning some hire boats - so a bit of a free holiday. The 2 boats we moved The route...
The Three Magpies
Why a trip to The Three Magpies? Several reason for the trip to The Three Magpies: Since I moved the boat to our mooring here at Foxhangers near Devizes, (Read about that trip here) the boat has hardly moved, other than across to the pump out. Since we bought the...
Newbury to Devizes – Part 4 – The Caen Hill Flight
View from the bottom of the Caen Hill Flight! The title of this post is probably a bit incorrect, as we had already past the actual town of Devizes, but the Foxhangers moorings at the bottom of the Caen Hill Flight is still technically in Devizes. The team My friends...
Newbury to Devizes – Part 3
This part of the journey from Newbury to Devizes takes us from Pewsey, along about 10 miles of canal with no locks, but many narrow and overgrown sections, till we reach Devizes and start the descent of Caen Hill. We did the first three locks going down and moored up...
Newbury to Devizes – Part 2
On the Kennet and Avon Kintbury to Pewsey Part 2 of the trip from Newbury to Devizes took us from Kintbury to Pewsey with an overnight stop at Great Bedwyn. The stats for this bit: 18 miles 27 locks, with a total rise of 196 ft 10 ins 1 swing bridge. We also...
Newbury to Devizes – Part 1
Newbury Bridge We are so lucky my trusty friends and crew Wyn and Donna were willing and able to help me with the last stage of the trip down to Devizes. And of course, I am so disappointed Karen wasn’t able to be part of it. I did manage to keep her updated with pics...
Reading to Newbury
The next stage of the trip, Reading to Newbury, also went pretty well much according to plan! Such a shame Karen was busy on a care job, so couldn’t be with me. Fortunately, a lovely couple, Donna and Wyn, who we met during our boating travels in France, were both...
Windsor to Reading
I love it when a plan comes together, and the trip from Windsor to Reading went pretty much to plan! Shirley Anne in Windsor The planning app I used said it would take 14 hours – we took 13.75 hours. The other part of the plan was for Karen to hire a car, collect me...
It’s all in the planning!
Like most things – It’s all in the planning! Since my last post we have done the deed and Shirley Anne (soon to be Shangri La) is ours. Karen collected the keys last week. And now we are planning how to get her from Windsor on the Thames to near Devizes on the Kennet...
About Me
My love of boats goes back to my early years when I went on holiday with my parents to Knysna in the Cape.
We stayed at a hotel on stilts, and I played in rowing boats and little motor boats on the lagoon.