A Bit More on Bath as we Take a Scottish Break

Just a wrap on Bath. Serafina spent nearly a week in Bath, Rachael and I spent a couple of days, punctuated with a trip to Scotland. The last part of the journey into Bath was a highlight, the cityscape across the hill and some of the ornate stonework on the tunnels and bridges made for interesting viewing.

This shot, coming out of Sydney Tunnel.

  
This tunnel, Cleveland Tunnel, with Cleveland House atop is around 52 metres long.

 
Once moored in Bath we locked up Serafina and headed into town. There is always the shopping to be done when you hit a larger town or city and Bath has a nice big shopping centre. Not surprisingly, you could have been in any city in the UK as the shops never seem to change. There are plenty of chain stores and not so many boutique stores, this is not unlike the way shopping centres have gone in Australia.

Rachael and I have done the 'tourist thing' in Bath several times before. We passed all the main tourist hangouts pointing them out to Kevin and Carol, stopping several times to listen to different artists performing in the street. One thing I have noticed on my visits to Bath is the quality of the buskers on the streets and how well regulated they are in rotating around the various popular parts of the city.

Pretty soon we were searching out something for lunch, we chose one of the oldest pubs in Bath. Rachael and I both chose a chicken burger with chips and salad, after being told that several of the popular choices were unavailable.  It turned out to be a store bought burger rather than a freshly prepared piece of chicken, needless to say lunch was nothing to rave about. A few hours later it was time for tea and scones and one thing Bath does have is some really good tea houses.

We returned via the long walk up the hill to the canal to find the moorings full. Before we had left there were only five boats on the 48 hour moorings, our two boats, a hire boat and two others that looked suspiciously like they had been there for at least several weeks. What are the tell tale signs a boat has been on a mooring for a long time? Well, to start, the amount of junk beside the boat and the length of the grass around that junk.

That was all the time we had to spend in Bath, just the one day. We prepared to go to Scotland, it was Rachael's aunt's birthday. The next morning I moved Serafina to the 14 day moorings just a few hundred metres back up the canal, after going down two locks and winding. Once Serafina was safely pinned it was straight into a taxi and over to Bath Railway Station for the seven hour train journey to Glasgow.

We managed five days away in Scotland, two of which were traveling days. In a two visits to Scotland this year we haven't managed to score too many dry days but we still managed to enjoy ourselves, the time seemed to fly.

Back on the canal by around 5:30pm we grabbed a few things from the Tesco Express between the 48 hour and 14 day moorings and headed over the bridge and down on to the canal. Surprise! all but two boats on the 48 hour moorings were different, seems these two guys have decided to try their luck and see how long they can last here. Who knows how long they have already been there! We made our way to the 14 day moorings and loaded the boat with our suitcases and food essentials. Rachael found boarding the boat a little difficult given the distance between the boat and the shore but managed to get in through the cratch at the bow.

We had phoned ahead and Kevin and Carol on NB Dunslavin had moved a few times while we were away and were now moored in Bathampton, about a half hour cruise depending on the number of ever present continuous moorers. There was a mooring available for us so we headed off. It turned out to be a good mooring with  great views...of The George Inn.

It was nearly 7pm by the time we moored and noone felt like cooking so it was over to The George for dinner.

Heading out of Bathampton this morning I did notice one change. I took this photo going into Bath nearly a week ago.

 This shot was taken this morning. Ready to live in again?

We are currently moored in Bradford on Avon, below Bradford Lock, after a frustrating five and half hour cruise, mainly a tick over. Tuesday must be hire boats out day, must have passed nearly twenty hire boats heading towards Bath. It was a challenge at times avoiding them, almost being T-boned once by a hire boat coming too fast around a blind corner on the wrong side of the canal. Following a broad beam boat also proved quite frustrating. He didn't get out of tick over and each time a boat passed he ended up grounded.

One thing that has struck me is the number of broken down boats on this canal. I passed one guy on the front of his boat using a barge pole to move the boat down the canal; glad I wasn't following him! Could the CRT be exerting pressure on people to move boats that haven't moved (as they should be) for quite a long time? Our rescue count is also mounting, another boat across the canal but this time we had already moored. A rogue speedster had pulled out the pins.