It’s gone all close and sticky today, and I’m seriously weary after the excitements of Towney and Woolhampton, not to mention the Aldermaston lift bridge.
The news from Caen Hill is not good at all; I gather that the lock 24 gates have completely collapsed, and new ones will have to be fabricated, involving a four week closure, so it looks as if the argument about Bristol will be academic.
We continue to cruise in company with Priston, whose crew give invaluable advice, making this section of the canal much easier than it would otherwise be.
I must say, I do hope that things improve after a bit, though some say the really good bit is the far side of Devizes, so we may not get to see it.
This waterway was remainder status in very recently of course, hence the lack of maintenance for cruising purposes. If the public spending cuts bite as hard as forecast, then we had all better get used to boating in these conditions, I guess.
For my money, we’d be better to mothball some of the less popular and badly maintained routes until the wheel turns again, rather than struggle to keep the whole system going. That would lead to an acrimonious debate about which canals to close down for a bit, of course, but I’m thinking of the ones which spend a lot of their time stopped anyway, so K&A, Huddersfield Narrow, Rochdale above Manchester...
I await the howls of rage!
3 comments:
There's a few howls of rage over on Canals List already - I might join in m'self in a minute.
But on the bright side, there are plenty of good bits of the K&A east of Devizes - which is itself a delightful town - including Newbury, the summit [starring the appropriately named Bruce Tunnel] and the lightly populated long pound. You can always come back and do the rest another year because it is NOT going to be mothballed!
Well I will join the rage Bruce!..
It was my Uncle, who was the Chief Engineer of Berkshire Council, that help manage to get the K&A opened to navigation in 1990!
He phoned me.. "Sue I have done it for you.. we will build the Aldermaston Swing Bridge"
It will get better for you.. you have done the worst bit.. ;-)
Well, sure enough, that got things going!
As I've just tweeted, I'm too knackered to post properly today; late night last night and heavy day today, but I'll come back to these themes soon, I promise.
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