Onto Familiar Water

Our third day on the Basingstoke dawns, the sun is shining and we again appreciate the mooring at Mytchett Lake. At 8.30 we set off, having removed the petunias from the roof and leaving the water cans inside, more on why later.

We cruise through Ash and come across our first interesting feature of the day:

I have no idea as to how many times I've driven under this, I can only ever recall seeing 1 boat passing over.

Very shortly afterwards we encounter our first, and only lock for the day, Ash Lock, then we cruise through and past the vast army barracks at Aldershot, there were soldiers out practicing shouting and stamping of feet. Then the very pretty Queens Avenue Bridge:

Just after this we get to Farnborough Road Bridge, it looks a bit low! So I slow down and head for the higher looking side, it appears to slope downwards from left to right. I virtually stop and get the bow into the bridge, there seems to be about 1/2 inch clearance, then 0 inch clearance then a bit of a ripping sound, bugger! Penny has the good idea of going to the front to try to lower it a bit, this seems to work and we inch our way through, a helpful Nepalese gentleman on the towpath is also showing us the clearance. We get through with no further damage. There is a small tear in the cratch cover at the front of the top plank, oh well, have to get some tape to try to make it waterproof.

Now we're on water we've cruised before on the John Pinkerton trip boat, we pass the notice telling us that an angry swan will attack the boat, it doesn't!! I was kind of disappointed, had the camera ready too!! We pass one of the few treeless areas at Runways End where we enjoyed last years air show from the roof of the trip boat and cruise on to Fleet.

Penny points out a note about Fleet in our Nicholsons guide:
"Useful for its shops and services, but little else of interest"
Gave me a bit of a chuckle.

The Pondtail Bridges (also very low) are passed without incident, about a whole inch to spare! The Reading Road South Bridge is also passed (with maybe just a tiny scrape but no further damage) We will remove the cover and plank for the return journey.

I jump off at Malt House Bridge and walk down to Zebon Copse Swing Bridge to open it, both boats pass through, I close up and jump back on at Poulter Bridge. Dick stops for lunch at Church Crookham, we carry on and have ours on the move.

It's very pleasant at Tundry Pond:

Then we get to Dogmersfield and the slippage which stopped us from making this trip a couple of years ago:

We pass a visiting boat at the Barley Mow, the only one today.

We are now on very familiar water, we must have cruised between the Barley Mow and Odiham Castle, well a lot!!

We pass Colt Hill and are surprised to see no boats there, we continue on to the castle, Penny walks down from Colt Hill and works the North Warnborough Lift Bridge.

Odiham Castle:

North Warnborough Lift Bridge:

Wildlife on the way back:

There was also another in the same field with a very small fawn, couldn't get a piccy though!

We return to Colt Hill, I get out the John Pinkerton and perform pump-out duties, Dick helps with the water, I take the opportunity of a free pump-out for us!! We put it all away, boats and equipment, and tie up:

We've gone home for the evening, so I'm writing this at home, I need to sort out my gear for my Morocco trip which starts on Monday. We're back to the boat tomorrow evening and have a family meal at 'Next Door' in Odiham.

Today:       17 miles -    1 lock  -      8 hours
So Far: 144.5 miles -   74 locks -    75 hours