The Wey & Godalming Navigations
24-27 October 2003
A long weekend on the River Wey and Godalming Navigation...
Just before dawn on the northern end of the Godalming Navigation, on the
southern edge of Guildford, our mooring spot for Friday night.
During Saturday, we reached Woodham Junction, where the Wey Navigation meets the
Basingstoke Canal - a lovely rural canal junction?
Well, not quite. Here the main Waterloo to Portsmouth railway line crosses the
Wey as the Navigation heads south
And a view north towards Weybridge shows the enormous viaduct of the M25
crossing the canal and shattering any illusions of rural peace. However, this
short section apart, the waterway is very rural and scenic.
On Sunday morning, a scene at Walsham and one of the flood locks on the Wey
Smoke rising from a moored boat shows that not everyone was up before dawn
But what a beautiful day they are missing
Henry enjoying the sunshine
Another boat heads towards us on this cold but clear morning
Lucy and our boat Jasmine II in Newark Lock, with the remains of Newark
Priory behind
The dogs take a rest while the lock fills
The cascading weir at Papercourt Lock is a delightful scene
Lucy brings Jasmine into the lock
As we continue our journey back towards Godalming, horses graze by the water's
edge
Lucy steers Jasmine through Guildford
We leave St Catherine's Lock behind, now back on the Godalming Navigation
Lucy and the dogs in the late afternoon sunshine
Broadford Bridge is very low, with a maximum of 6'4" of clearance
Lucy at the tiller crouches down ...
...and springs back up like a jack-in-the-box!
Henry looking grumpy, but he's cheerful really!
Passing the junction with the derelict Wey & Arun Canal, the focus of a
long-term restoration project to rebuild "London's lost route to the sea" at
Chichester
George and Henry watching the world go by, and provoking a lot of "Aaah" noises
from walkers on the towpath
Henry the figurehead
The autumn colours are lovely this year
The sun sets as we approach our mooring at Manor Inn on the outskirts of
Godalming
On Monday morning, Henry is back on his favourite spot - if he wasn't able to
see everything that was going past, he would pace from side to side of the boat
to make sure he wasn't missing anything
Jasmine waits for us to take her back to the boatyard
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