Waterside D

It was an early start to get to Devizes for the 06:00 check in this morning, but Big and I made it and in good form.
We decided that we would aim for a 7 hour paddle today and try and head off early, secretly hoping we would be sub 7 hours in the end.

Getting onto the canal was a nightmare as there was only room for a single kayak at a time to be put in, but after a 15 minute or so delay, we were heading East on the canal.

It was a fantastic morning, with the sun out, still conditions and 15.5 miles to the 1st portage.
After about 6 mile Big was suffering from numb bum syndrome and needed to get out to stretch his legs, but it was only a 60 second stop at the most and we were back on our way to meet up with Simon, Andy and Al at Pewsey wharf. Onemore quick numb bum stop and we reached Pewsey, with an average speed of 5.7 mph.

A good paddle through the tunnel and onto Crofton where the locks start in earnest. The support crew were ready and waiting, and refuelled us, and our camelbaks and off we ran for the rest of the locks.

The remaining paddle from Bedwyn to Newbury was really positive and when the support crew changed to Nat and Gary at Froxfield, we were still up on our 5 mph average speed by a few minutes.
Our favourite stretch of canal seems to be Kintbury through the next lock, which is 1.5 miles and we averaged this at over 6, which is really good having already covered 30 miles.

coming into Newbury, we crossed the line after 6 hours and 42 minutes, up on both our hoped for time and keeping an average speed which will allow us to get pretty close to a 24hour DW.

The support crew were brilliant and have had their first taste of tow path action, and they survived that and kept us going. Top team!

2 weeks to go now, and we're going to concentrate on some night sections of the Thames and also the Theale to Reading section to make sure we have all our timings right.
The countdown begins!