I have to confess to messing up the grand plan and somewhere lost a day. This means that in order to return the crew home as promised from Bedwyn (our nearest convenient railhead) we had to do two days cruise in one. So we did the leap from Devizes to Bedwyn at a gallop. Very little traffic about. One thing seems very obvious and that is the different standard of maintenance on this side of the summit. The gates are sticky and wobbly, some ground paddles with the new gearing have been tightened up so much that they are stiffer than the unreconstructed ones must have been, and some of the original geared gate gear is still unchanged. Also lots of irritating "Leave Lock Empty" signs, one hand written citing leaking lower gates. I am resolved to report on each lock as I progress further, initially single handed until refreshed crew arrives at Kintbury.
BTW there is no Orange signal at Bedwyn to post by GPRS, or make calls even.
Comments