Day 0 - Today is Preparation Day!

We have one day to research, prepare and pack for our yearly trip on Little Abbey! It's been such a busy start to the holidays that I haven't been able to do prepare so it's going to be a mammoth exercise today.

We were going to travel to Oxford, but have decided that there are more locks than we want to tackle - we do want a fairly relaxing time, so we're going to go Bristol. We have never visited it and there are lots of family attractions.

On with the packing........

Day 8: Sand pits and Splashing

We had a quieter day today, Matthew took our washing to the laundrette whil Anthony, Charlotte and I tidied up , made some rice crispy bars and loom bands!

After lunch we went to the leisure centre, a search on the internet revealed that there was a leisure pool there with water slides. It was good fun although we were restricted to one hour  in the pool. We then went to Sydney Gardens which had a play area. It was a simple play area but the children loved messing around in the sand pit! All in all, a fairly relaxed but fun day. Tomorrow we move on and start making our journey back home. I did like exploring Bath, and I really enjoyed visiting the Roman Baths and seeing the amazing buildings like the Abbey. However, it all feels so big, busy with people and cars and a bit overwhelming. I do prefer country living and I'll be happy to be travelling along the canal back through pretty scenery with lots of green surroundings and wildlife.

Day 7: Walking Back in Time

We awoke to a lovely sunny day, perfect for exploring Bath. We made our way to the Roman Baths and spent a very enjoyable morning exploring them and learning all about the baths, We used portable phone guides which the children loved. It was an amazing place with very impressive masonry. It was also made very wheelchair accessible with only a couple of parts that I couldn't access. After a bite to eat for lunch, we made our way to the Fashion Museum (we bought a combined ticket at the Roman Baths for only a few pounds extra. I found it interesting see the way fashion has changed over the last 200 years but it wasn't Matthew's cup of ea. The children loved listened to more portable phone guides and completing sticker sheets. 

We weren't far from the Royal Crescent which I wanted to visit, so we also visited that and took some photos but it was getting late and windy and we still had to walk all the way back through the city to our boat. We had an enjoyable day and got a real taste of the the culture of Bath.

Day 6: Dead Rats and Journeys to the Centre of the Earth

We left Bradford Upon Avon fairly early with the intention of arriving in Bath around lunchtime. Unfortunately we travelled fairly slowly due to lots of boats moored on the canal. It is beautiful though, and so tranquil, that we didn't mind the slower paces. It reminded me of the Oxfordshire canal, it is so relaxing wth lots of interesting natual features to look at. We travelled over a couple of aquaducts which give a different perspective because we are then looking down on the landscape rather than up at it. 

Anthony and Charlotte were brilliant at working the swing bridges, they know exactly what to do but unfortunately still need a bit of help moving them because they aren't strong enough yet. 

We stopped in the pretty area of Bathampton for lunch and the proceeded to Bath.  There is a flight of about six locks leading into Bath city centre. We were going to moor in the centre near Pulteney Bridge so we carried on through all the locks, although there were moorings between these locks. Just before the Bath Deep Lock, the Dead Rat Musicians came up behind us and asked if we'd go down in the lock with them. We agreed and undertook the adventure together. We were rather apprehensive about squashing them - their boat looked rather small compared to us! It is a huge lock - it felt like we were going into the centre of the earth, never to return. The cill (step) was massive, it really was incredible how they built it. 

Unfortunately, when we got to Pulteney Bridge, the moorings were sectioned off and we weren't allowed to moor there! We did then turn back and take the river towards Bristol to see if there were any suitable moorings in that direction - we really didn't want to go back through all the locks again to the earlier moorings, it was 5pm at night and it would take a couple of hours to get to the moorings at the top of flight. However, the moorings along the river did not look good - too close to the bus station and there were lots of beer bottles around - not a good sign for boaters mooring on a Friday/Saturday night. We travelled back up through three locks, including Deep Lock. This was much more ferocious rising up in it, we got pushed around a bit and the depth made it feel a bit scary, I was glad to get to the top! We found a peaceful mooring sight with a few other boats. It felt much better and safer and it had a very good tow path for me. This will be our home spot for a few days. 

Dalton Dame's Transformation

Dalton Dame - ready for redecoration

Oh my goodness, what has happened to our boat?!

The Dalton Dame is about to change her name! She has arrived at The Dry Dock Company, Greenham Lock, Newbury, ready for her repaint. After originally planning burgundy red and cream coach lines for her colours, we changed to a red and green scheme with a cream roof (to reflect the sun in summer) and cream coach lines. These photos detail her transformation.......

Body work rubbed down and rust patches treated ready for paint.....

Coach lines!

Newly varnished seat with dark green paintwork

Ferrari red and dark green edged with cream

A gorgeous cream roof

Looking smart, one side painted

We both agreed, and with some advice from the sign writer and The Dry Dock Company, that the font should be cream with a red shadow. Matthew liked the simpler, less fussy font.

Melissa liked the prettier, more swirly font.

After a vote and a recount the results were two votes to one, with one abstention. Anthony decided to support his Mum and Charlotte was very diplomatic!

Little visitors from Sunflowers...

We had a lovely trip on our boat today with children from the preschool room at Sunflowers Nursery, Grafton. Their current topic that they are learning about is 'Houses' and they have created a model of a house boat. So that the children can experience life on a house boat themselves, they visited us this morning and we travelled up to Pewsey.

Charlotte loved having all her friends visit, and showed them how things worked, including the pump loos! It was quite an adventure for everyone - we had twelve children between the ages of three and four, and seven adults on the boat (including my Mum isn't a great fan of boats!). They enjoyed looking out of the windows, looking for wildlife and all the autumnal colours of the leaves. Snack was organised in rotation, and it all worked well. Unfortunately the weather was rather wet, poor Matthew had to take sheltered under an umbrella,whilst steering the boat. Once we reached Pewsey, we had another exercise of organisation, swapping slippers for wellies and raincoats again before Sunflowers disembarked.

We ate lunch while moored at Pewsey, and then returned back home again. Thank you Sunflowers, for sharing our boat with us, it was a real pleasure and we hope you enjoyed your adventure and learnt some more about life on a narrow boat.

There and Back Again; the Sansums' Tale.....

This weekend we needed to move our boat because we have been moored for two weeks which is the maximum length of time you can moor on non-permanent moorings before you have to move. We haven't moved far though, we travelled from Wootton Rivers down to Burbage Wharf and then back again, stopping one lock further down from where we were originally. It's been a lovely afternoon, a bit chilly, it made me want a log burner; but we have seen blue sky and sunshine.

Anthony and Charlotte were on lock duty again, which they enjoyed. We have stopped now and are spring cleaning a bit. Matthew's removing the sticky residue from the hire boat logo. He's also window cleaning, trying out our new mop. We have the TV up and running, although no TV signal, we will have to get travel sat installed. We can watch DVDs though, so I think we'll try that out tonight with a bowl of popcorn for company!

It was lovely arriving back on the boat, it felt like coming back home again. I just love being surrounded by all the countryside and really feeling part of it. I want to do another big trip!