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Kennet & Avon Canal - Newbury to Reading (★★★★☆)

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Today is my final day walking the Kennet & Avon Canal between Bristol and Reading - and having walked from Benwyn to Newbury  on the previous day, I'm finishing off the trip with a walk from Newbury to Reading. By now the ground has largely dried up from the rains two days ago, but in any case the path is a very good one as I head out of Newbury - and the only negative at the start of the day, is that I'm leaving too early to be able to get any supplies from the shops in Newbury (with it being a Sunday). But having looked ahead on the map, I should be able to turn off at Thatcham, and buy some food from a shop that lies not too far off the route of the canal there. And on the flip side, it being a Sunday morning means it is a very quiet walk out of town - and having got down to the canal, the first section of walking involves a trip out through the edge of town - where canal and river combine.  From Bristol and Bath we primarily walked the navigation of the River Avon, at...
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Kennet & Avon - Bedwyn to Newbury (★★★☆☆)

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Today is the fourth of five days spent walking the Kennet & Avon Canal between Bristol and Reading. On the previous day I had walked from Devizes to Great Bedwyn , and today the plan is to continue on to Newbury. I had already stayed overnight in Newbury, having decided to use this as a base for two days - using the train to get between Bedwyn and Newbury on the previous day. Having ended that day with a muddy walk into Bedwyn, it was with slight trepidation that I was heading out to begin the walk back to Newbury along the canal. But whilst the towpath was far from perfect upon my return to the canal, it was certainly not as bad as it had been on the run into Bedwyn from the far side. A lock on the run out of Great Bedwyn From here it is a very short run down to Little Bedwyn, which lies slightly further along the canal - and from here we have a very quiet and rural section as we make our way round to Hungerford (a larger village). A lock on the way into Little Bedwyn Little Bedw...
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Kennet & Avon - Devizes to Bedwyn (★★★★☆)

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Today is the third of five days spent walking the Kennet & Avon Canal between Bristol and Reading. On the previous day I had walked from Bath to Devizes , and today the plan is to continue on to Great Bedwyn. Here I will be catching the train on to Newbury, and I will be using that town as my overnight stop for the next two nights (walking from Bedwyn to Newbury on the following day). Having stayed in the Travelodge in the north of Devizes, it is only a short run before I find myself leaving the town behind and heading out into quiet countryside - and the section from here to Newbury is the most rural section of the canal. Here I make a lazy start to the day, stopping off at a quiet section of the canal to have an early breakfast - and then continue to lazily wander on, slightly worn out by the previous day's mileage. When planning this walk I had realised fairly early on that Bath and Devizes were going to be the obvious first two stop over points, and Newbury the obvious las...
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Kennet & Avon Canal - Bath to Devizes (★★★★★)

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Today is the second of five days spent walking the Kennet & Avon Canal between Bristol and Reading. On the previous day I had walked from Bristol to Bath , and today the plan is to walk on to Devizes. This promises to be an interesting day - and my plan is first to explore a tiny bit of Bath in the quiet of the morning, then head along the canal (enjoying the Dundas and Avoncliff Aqueducts), before finishing up with the Caen Hill Lock Flight on the run into Devizes. And so, it is very early in the morning, and I'm heading through a fairly empty Bath - but instead of following the canal, I'm having a bit off a poke around the old buildings that make up the core of the oldest part of town. Roman Bathhouse Bath Abbey Usually these are pretty busy sites, but with it being early and out of season, I pretty much have them all to myself, and this exploration eventually takes me up to Pulteney Bridge. From here I should really follow the Avon down to the junction of the canal, but...
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