{"id":1400,"date":"2017-06-29T20:08:11","date_gmt":"2017-06-29T19:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toby200.net\/oliver\/?p=1400"},"modified":"2017-06-29T20:16:16","modified_gmt":"2017-06-29T19:16:16","slug":"1400","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toby200.net\/oliver\/?p=1400","title":{"rendered":"A long straight cut"},"content":{"rendered":"

We departed Newbury a few minutes earlier than expected as we noticed a boat coming up in our first lock at 7:50 and felt we should not miss the opportunity of a full lock with open gates.<\/p>\n

Walking around yesterday we had spotted a convenient place to top up the diesel and water at Newbury Marina just before bridge 56 and we pulled in there at 8:25.\u00a0 We heard in great detail from the operator how the expanding community of permanent canal residents has been ruining the canal.\u00a0 It all seemed rather harsh given the number of really nice people we have met.\u00a0 We have, mind you, seem some boats we would have classed as uninhabitable!\u00a0 One lady described them as unsanitary.<\/p>\n

The waterway became very narrow through the Thatcham Reedbeds widening into the long cut.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
One way traffic?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We had been warned that the next swing bridge was very heavy but as we approached it was opened by a volunteer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
It didn’t seem heavy to us!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We then reached the unusual turf lock, Monkey Marsh Lock at Thatcham and there was the same volunteer offering more help.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Pleased to see you<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are only two of these turf locks in the country and we will see the other one shortly at Garston<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Oliver in Monkey Marsh turf lock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We considered stopping at Thatcham but two passing boats said that Woolhampton moorings had emptied out earlier on so we decided to carry on. \u00a0The Thatcham moorings are right beside the railway and so rather noisy too. \u00a0We found plenty of space at the visitor moorings and walked up to the village shop.\u00a0 We were provided with a rather fine, heavy duty cotton bag for our provisions.\u00a0 There was a condition attached – we must always carry the bag with the picture of the shop and its name visible to passers by!<\/p>\n

In the evening we had the pleasure of seeing a moorhen feeding her young.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Aaaah!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We departed Newbury a few minutes earlier than expected as we noticed a boat coming up in our first lock at 7:50 and felt we should not miss the opportunity of a full lock with open gates. Walking around yesterday we had spotted a convenient place to top up the diesel and water at Newbury … Continue reading A long straight cut<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bristol-2017"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s8PLyH-1400","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toby200.net\/oliver\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toby200.net\/oliver\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toby200.net\/oliver\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toby200.net\/oliver\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toby200.net\/oliver\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1400"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/toby200.net\/oliver\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1404,"href":"https:\/\/toby200.net\/oliver\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400\/revisions\/1404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toby200.net\/oliver\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toby200.net\/oliver\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toby200.net\/oliver\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}