7/28 (Tuesday) – Kennett and Avon Canal

The canal was navigable today and the weather was reasonably good…mainly partly cloudy and a bit cold.  But most of us spent at least some time up on the deck watching England float by. 

At lunch time we stopped at the village of Wooten River.  This village had quite a number of buildings with thatched roofs.

There was a pretty brick building that was the former Wesley (Methodist) Chapel., built in 1881.  It had been turned into a cozy private home.

There was also the ubiquitous quaint Anglican Church, St. Andrews.

In the "olden days" towns did not have house numbers or street addresses so homes were referred to by name.  We saw house name signs for a number of the homes in Wooten River.

After lunch we headed out for our last leg of the cruise.

One of the major and different attractions today was the Bruce Tunnel.  It is the only tunnel on the Kennett and Avon canal, is constructed of bricks and is 502 yards long.  It was constructed between 1806 and 1809, making it over 200 years old.

There is an iron chain along the inside of the canal.  It was originally used by the boatmen to pull the boats through the canal since the tunnel had no tow path for the horses.  Some of the chain still remains.

We arrived in Pewsy mid-afternoon.  We were pretty far from town so sightseeing didn’t work out so well. 

As this was our last full day of the cruise our afternoon snack was “cream tea”, English tea with homemade scones and clotted cream.  Very English and very tasty.

After docking David and Karen set up the upper deck rails and the deck chairs so we all went up for a short drink (too cold to linger too long).  It was great up there and we just wished the weather had been better.  This is our group, clockwise starting from front left are John, Jim Bratt, Mary Davis, Phyllis Bratt, Paul Davis, and Rosamund.