Hilperton

Hilperton probably means little to anyone as a place name, but it is really on outlying suburb of Trowbridge......

Below bottom lock at Seend Cleeve

We left our secluded and peaceful mooring just before 9am with the first destination of Semington in mind.  We had arranged to wait here for friends Alan & Karen.  They were en route to Gatwick and had never seen Petroc so it seemed a good opportunity to put that to rights and to have a catch up.

Some of the sign posts en route were very new and smart.

Our own bit of dual carriageway on a small aqueduct

Quite a new aqueduct over the newish A350

Alan had brought his bike so after coffee we set off again with the possible destination of Hilperton in mind.  Our book showed 2 mooring places there so we thought we should be OK.
Alan had fun steering Petroc for most of the way whilst Karen and I were able to sit up in the cratch and watch the world go by very slowly(and gossip!!)  After lunch on board Alan cycled back to collect their car and they continued their journey to hotter climes.........mind you it cleared up very nicely today and I am not complaining about the temperature here........just the mooring!!!!
The mooring is not a patch on last nights, rough bank and we can't even get the bows in, never mind the stern.  It is also a very narrow towpath which is very busy with cyclists so Barney cannot lie out and he is not pleased.   Admittedly it is the same towpath we have had for the past few nights, busy with cyclists, but the grass area has not been so narrow............plenty of room for Barney to lie safely.   Some of the cyclists go far too fast (in my opinion).  Geoff did a recce this evening and it seems we are in the best place hereabouts (all things are relative)  Anyway the result is we shall move on tomorrow to Bradford-upon-Avon and not stay over as we normally do for the weekend.  
4.25 miles, 2 locks, 2hrs 43 min(in two stages)