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.
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| Roman Bathhouse |
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| 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 with it already being set to be a long day, I don't quite have the stomach for paying the price for my stint of exploration - and instead cut up over Pulteney Bridge, and then take a direct route across to the canal.
And after climbing up onto higher ground, this releases us onto a busy canal towpath, with quite a lot of bikes and pedestrians heading into Bath (mostly on their way to work).
And here we also find a canal lined with boats, which are parked up in a long line that covers most of our journey out of the city.
But once beyond this line of boats, we soon find ourselves heading into very pretty countryside.
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| Slightly further out of Bath |
On the run into Bath we had been enjoying a rural riverside walk, but here we have a much more traditional canal side walk - with a repeat of the same steep valleys that we found on our way out of Bristol.
And it is already obvious that this is a walk that is very much worth doing - with a good mix of scenery, towns and unique canal features lying ahead.
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| A very pleasant route out of town |
That said - for those who are interested in cycling this section of canal - I would just warn that it is quite a bumpy and stony route. For those of us walking this is not a major issue, but if you are cycling you will either want good suspension, or you will find that you are best going very slowly (and we are on the official cycle route here).
But in any case, we soon break free of the city, and start heading in a more southerly direction - heading past Claverton Pumping Station, on our way to Dundas Wharf.
Claverton Pumping Station sits on the edge of the River Avon, and opened in 1813, with the job of pumping water up from the River Avon to the canal when needed.
This provided a key means of getting water into this section of the canal - and then pumped up through the locks that will come later on our walk - keeping the summit of the canal supplied with water at all times.
The pumping station itself is only open on the second Saturday and second Tuesdays of each month between April and October - with the pump only being run on the Saturdays.
As such, it is not running today - and whilst I'm tempted to pop down to have a look, in the end I can't quite stomach the idea of heading down and back up on a day when I already have a lot of walking ahead of me.
So instead we head on and soon end up at Dundas Wharf.
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| Crossing the canal at Dundas Wharf |
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| Junction with the Somerset Coal Canal |
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| Looking back towards Bath at Dundas Aqueduct |
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| View ahead whilst crossing the aqueduct |
The aqueduct is very impressive, and very nicely done, but the downside of it is that we cross over from the sunny side of the valley to the colder and darker side (with us now walking in the shade created by the valley side).
From here we are still heading south - but before long we turn to head east, as we pass Limpley Stoke - and start heading towards Winsley and Avoncliff.
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| Heading past Limley Stoke |
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| Heading on towards Avoncliff |
At Avoncliff, we once again cross over the River Avon - at Avoncliff Aqueduct - which is another ornate aqueduct that is far more than just a functional river crossing.
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| Avoncliff Aqueduct |
And for those looking to do a shorter walk, we also have an easy exit/entry point onto the canal here - and the walk so far (from Bath to Avoncliff) should total around 7 miles.
Having crossed over the River Avon, we continue to walk along the canal, and it continues to be an enjoyable walk, as we head on along a wooded stretch of the canal, until we arrive at Bradford-Upon-Avon.
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| The Tithe Barn at Bradford-Upon-Avon |
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| The wharf at Bradford-Upon-Avon |
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| Our onward route out of town |
On the way out of town, there is a supermarket close to the canal - and so here I stop off to resupply with some more food and drink (I excluded this from the total distance), and then we head on, and start to leave the town behind.
Once out of town, it isn't too long though, before we start closing in on the next town (Trowbridge), but we only pass through the very edge of town - and here the main site of interest is the Marina, and the boat works that we pass by.
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| The crane at the marina |
With us only cutting through the very edge of town, we are soon back out and now walking along a flat plain - without too much of interest in terms of natural features, but this is compensated by an increased number of canal features.
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| A swing bridge |
And after passing a number of fairly isolated locks, we are soon passing an increasing number of locks, as we start to gain a bit of height.
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| One of the first locks encountered |
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| Another lock |
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| One of the bigger locks |
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| A lock and a bridge |
This run of locks keeps up the interest as we cover the ground between Trowbridge and the main Caen Hill Lock Flight, but eventually (and after quite a lot of twists and turns on the approach), we arrive at this main flight (and the bit that makes Caen Hill so special).
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| The main flight at Caen Hill |
Caen Hill Lock Flight is a flight of 29 locks in total that increase the height of the canal by 237 feet over the course of 2 miles.
By this point we have passed the first seven locks along the flight, but ahead the main part of the flight has a run of sixteen locks in close succession.
With the locks being so close, the locks have sideway-extended ponds to store the water needed to keep the flight operational - and it takes around 6 hours to get through the full set of 29 locks by boat.
In order to keep this working, water has to be pumped up from the bottom to the top of the flight, to keep the levels at the top high enough - but for us walkers what we mostly face is a fairly decent hill.
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| The preceding lock before the main flight |
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| Looking down having made good progress up the flight |
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| Further up the flight |
The view is definitely most impressive from the bottom - where it is easiest to see the fully flight of locks running up ahead of you (although for boaters this might be a less welcome sight).
Then as we head up there is plenty to see out to the side - and as we pass each lock along the way - but whilst the view down gives great views, you don't quite get the same view of the flight as from below - without the same ability to see the full run of locks in succession.
But as we reach the top, we also get a view out across to the edge of the North Wessex Downs (albeit fairly hidden through the trees), and that also gives an early taster of some of the countryside we will be able to enjoy tomorrow.
But the walk isn't over yet, and there is still a decent bit of walking to be done as we continue on into and through Devizes.
Here I am staying over at the Travelodge - and whilst it proves to be a fairly noisy spot in terms of road traffic, it is very well placed next to the canal - and so there is no real diversion required to head off to my accommodation for the night.
Overall this has been a great day, and as a standalone walk, this really shows off the very best of what British canals have to offer.
Tomorrow we have a new day - but this has been a wonderful walk.
Total Distance: 23.0 miles
Total Ascent: 846 feet (mostly at Caen Hill)
Enjoyment Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ / 5
Disclaimer: This writeup provides a narrative of what to expect rather than a route guide to follow. The route is covered by the 172 and 173 OS Landranger maps (links redirect to Amazon). The walk today is incredibly straight-forward to follow (just stay near the canal)
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