The Kennet & Avon - A Personal Review

So having completed the Kennet and Avon Navigation (K&A) in both directions what are our impressions?

Everyone warned us the Kennet and Avon would be very hard work.  They were correct!  The K&A passes through some pretty countryside and lovely towns and villages but often we could not admire the view due to overgrown banks and us having to concentrate on staying afloat.  Most of the 107 locks were in poor condition often with inadequate locking waiting areas. Decent mooring places were few and far between with some official visitor moorings being nothing more than eroded bankside.  We encountered low water levels and much silt deposits at many points along the navigation.  In a couple of areas the channel was so overgrown by reeds on both sides there was barely enough width of water for a narrowboat to pass.  The Dundas to Avoncliffe stretch was very low on water and lived up to its old boaters' name of 'the dry stretch'.  On the other hand there were great places to visit along the way and there was the caen Hill Flight, of course.

So what did we consider to be the highlights of our K&A trip? 

We met some lovely people along the way. There were the two couples from London who were cruising to Bristol who kindly let us breast up with them on several ocassions when mooring space was sparse.  Angela, nb Lizzie Dripping, who we met at Thatcham and who became our travelling companion and lock buddy for a few days.  Roger and Barbara, nb Megan, who we met at Hilperton while taking on diesel.  They joined us for the majority of the return trip to the Thames.  Steve and Diane, who were returning to their mooring at Newbury. Steve gave me a lot of background information about the K&A's recent history which put a lot of our experiences into perspective.  Of course, I could not write about the K&A without mentioning Steamboat Tony with his Thrush steamer and rock'n'roll crew. Read about him here.  Those boaters we met who were based on the K&A were very loyal to their home waterway.  Steve, especially, exuded confidence about its future while acknowledging its current shortfalls and problems.

There are some great places to visit along the navigation.  Our favourites included Devizes, Bradford on Avon, Bath, Hungerford, Woolhampton, Kintbury, Pewsey village, Newbury and, of course, the fab city of Bristol.  Caen Hill Flight was not as horrendous as everyone had warned us and now represents another tick on our list of historic lock flights completed.  There was some spectacularly pretty scenery along the route, without a doubt.

The lowlights for us were Pewsey Wharf, if ever there was a missed opportunity for a little gem on the K&A this was it.  For such a great little village as Pewsey the wharf was a real disappointment.  Hopefully, someone will take up the challenge of making it an attractive place to stop over.  As the opening paragraph suggests silt, reeds, lack of water, dodgy locks, lack of decent or difficult moorings, eroded banks along the canal let alone river sections, all detracted from the enjoyment of this waterway.

So how would we sum up the K&A?  Well, it was worth cruising as we had always listed the K&A as one of our 'musts'.  Yes, it was very hard work and at times caused us to wonder what on earth we were thinking of taking up this itinerant lifestyle.  We can only feel sad at the missed opportunity that is the K&A.  The K&A Trust appears to have done a magnificent job in promoting and restoring this waterway but much of that effort seems to have been squandered by BW.  K&A dwellers are very loyal to their cut and all seem to love it - well it does pass through some of England's prettiest countryside.  But we detected some admission that this waterway was not at its best, maybe even deteriorating despite some significant investment, tempered with optimism that matters will improve over the next five years.  Let us hope the move of BW into the charity sector will realise this ambition and not frustrate those fans of the K&A.