Onto the Kinky Caldon

Setting off just after 7.30 (this is getting to be a habit) we turned onto the Caldon and found that we could have tied for the night just beyond the service wharf. Where we were on the towpath was OK – we were joined by three other boats by evening – but it would probably have been quieter on the Caldon. The towpath is very well used by the locals, especially locals in Lycra on bikes, so there was a frequent whooshing sound from outside until quite late.

I worked us up the Bedford Street staircase; no big deal, it’s a pretty standard arrangement, but the intermediate paddles were very heavy. I should have used the long throw windlass. I walked to Planet Lock, which was no trouble at all, although Sheila was already muttering about the bendy shape of the cut and the way that the locks tend to be offset.

This only got worse as we went on. Last time we came this way was in Sanity and the extra 10 foot really made things much trickier. The only other canal that bends and kinks like this is the South Oxford; Brindley again, of course.

It’s often asked why such a beautiful canal as the Caldon is so under-explored; I reckon part of it is down to the grotty first few miles. The water is full of floating and sunken rubbish and the bridge abutments and the like covered in graffiti. I know (or hope) that the rest of the canal makes up for it, but it is a rough start to the relationship.

This is typified by the boater’s experience of Milton, in itself a pleasant little village/suburb, but the so called mooring as marked in both Pearson’s and the First Mate Guide is just a length of concrete edge, no rings or bollards and with the offside greenery severely restricting the width.

Going on through the bridge leads to a bit of piling, but it’s right on a bend. We stopped there long enough for me to do basic shopping; on my way into the village I’d noticed a butcher and baker, so only bought the paper in the centre and walked back to this shop to get the bread.

They’d sold out.

/floor

Knowing that Sheila was unhappy with where we were tied, I didn’t slog back up the hill to the Co-op, but returned to the boat. I finished some part baked bread for lunch after we’d gone on to moor much more pleasantly below Engine Lock.

After lunch, we walked back to the village to shop, and this is clearly the best solution. As we’re staying here tomorrow, we didn’t in fact buy any more bread; we’ll get some from the shop I first thought of in the morning. But we did get some other supplies from the Co-op and then raided the second hand book shop.

This is a superb emporium, with the right musty, bookish smell to it. We’re presently on the look out for books for the Lodge as we want to put in some basic reference stuff such as a bird book and the like, and getting them second hand from shops like this seems like a good idea. I can’t recommend the place too highly; it was only the thought of having to carry them back to the boat that stopped us going completely mad.

We’re looking forward to the next few days; we’ll have the company of our good friends the Campbells and the weather really does look to be set fair. We’ll shortly be complaining that it’s too hot, no doubt.

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