Kennet and Avon for beginners?

[forestforestforest1]

I had so much friendly advice to my last post - thank you. We are beginners and we are looking as if we are going to book a Friday pm to Monday am trip on the Kennet and Avon from Devizes using Foxhangers.

 

Can anyone let us know if this is a good option? Seems like lovely, pleasant sights, and good for newbies, at a reasonable price and only an hour or so drive from the south coast! Seems there are lots of locks to the east at Caen Hill - never heard of it but should we avoid these 29LOCKS!!! by going west?

 

Any other advice?

 

ANY HELP MUCH APPRECIATED!!!

[magpie patrick]

I had so much friendly advice to my last post - thank you. We are beginners and we are looking as if we are going to book a Friday pm to Monday am trip on the Kennet and Avon from Devizes using Foxhangers.

 

Can anyone let us know if this is a good option? Seems like lovely, pleasant sights, and good for newbies, at a reasonable price and only an hour or so drive from the south coast! Seems there are lots of locks to the east at Caen Hill - never heard of it but should we avoid these 29LOCKS!!! by going west?

 

Any other advice?

 

ANY HELP MUCH APPRECIATED!!!

 

Depends on your sense of adventure, but as you don't yet know what you do and don't like, I wouldn't start with going up 29 locks that take the best part of a day.

 

Go west to Bath, but be prepared for a bit of congestion, you won't have the canal to yourself by a long shot. Good thing is, hands to help at locks, bad thing is, may get queues, especially at Bradford Lock, and can't more exactly where you please.

 

If you get to Bath, do go down the locks onto the river, even if only to see the glorious site of Pulteney Bridge and Weir from the water, also good central if mundane moorings by Avon Street Car Park

[J R]

I had so much friendly advice to my last post - thank you. We are beginners and we are looking as if we are going to book a Friday pm to Monday am trip on the Kennet and Avon from Devizes using Foxhangers.

 

Can anyone let us know if this is a good option? Seems like lovely, pleasant sights, and good for newbies, at a reasonable price and only an hour or so drive from the south coast! Seems there are lots of locks to the east at Caen Hill - never heard of it but should we avoid these 29LOCKS!!! by going west?

 

Any other advice?

 

ANY HELP MUCH APPRECIATED!!!

 

Good advice from Magpie there. Sounds that you are only out for a few days so your time is limited and suggest that you don't mess around with locks/swingbridges too much because however far you go you will have to do it again on the way back. Foxhangers have a good fleet of boats. Don't suggest that you go East on the K & A because the first thing you get to from Foxhangers is the Caen Hill Flight. Very imposing and great fun (hard work), but not a relaxing long weekend break. Going west from Foxhangers you will have a good time but there are quite a number of swingbridges and locks depending on where/how far you go.

 

At Hilperton (Trowbridge) there is Alvechurch which gives you the option to either go east or west. They have a range of boats and are happy to advise you on your cruising requirements. Ther will be locks etc depending on which way you go. In Bath at the western end of the K & A there are 2 Anglo Welsh bases, Dundas and Bath central from where you can cruise lock free (from Bath central) apart from 2 swing bridges. 9 miles from Bath to Bradford on Avon lock free and lovely countryside and local pubs. Good luck and happy holiday.

[deletedaccount]

I'd agree with the above. The cruise west is lovely. Trying to go all the way down the bath flight (and back up again!) might be a bit much in that time frame, but there's plenty of nice places in bath to moor at the top.

 

Depending on how far you make it on each day, nice places to stop include bradford on avon, avoncliff aqueduct (for the cross guns pub!), bathampton (for the george pub) and bath. Seend has a decent pub too iirc.

Edited January 11, 2011 by deletedaccount

[bottle]

Agree with all the above, if you did do Caen Hill you would go up one day and down the next not much of a break (you would know how to cope with locks though:lol:)

 

Just to say that although you have hired for four days you will only have two whole days of travel.

 

Check but I would expect that you will not get the boat until sometime after 14:00 Hrs with some delay for handover and tuition it will be probably be a lot later.

 

I also expect that the boat will have to be back by 09:00 Hrs on the Monday.

 

Do Have a great time, watch out for boat bugs.

[mikevye]

Why the K & A? Sounds to me as if you want to go the smallest possible distance in your allocated time. Four days on the Ashby for instance would allow you to actually go somewhere and see things/places! Try the Ashby boat company nice boats, nice people.

[Tim Doran]

+1 for a trip to Bath