The Walk to Rowde along the Kennet & Avon Canal.

A narrowboat flies the Wiltshire Flag.

With my friend Jenny,  I run a German conversation group in Rowde, a small village west of Devizes.  Our four regular members endeavour to speak only German over a cup of tea and chocolate biscuits on  two afternoons a month,  and it is a very pleasant way to spend two hours.  I like to walk to Jenny's house, a gentle three mile walk down Caen Hill from Devizes to her house in Rowde.   Right is a photo of a narrowboat flying the "Wiltshire Flag"  a green stripped flag with a picture of the "Great Bustard," a large bird that once lived in Wilshire but which,  by the 1840s had been hunted to extinction.   It has now been reintroduced by birds from Russia and is thriving once again  on Salisbury Plain. http://www.greatbustard.org.uk/  In the background can be seen the "Black Horse" pub, which burnt down last year, and has now been rebuilt.  It is one of my favourite pubs and lies beside the canal.  On a warm sunny day, it is nice to sit and drink beer, chat to friends and watch the narrowboats cruise by.

Below you can see narrowboats moored chevron style on the Britishwaterways moorings at the top of Caen Hill.  It is very expensive to moor boats here.  BW has a workshop nearby, and the parked van shows the BW logo and a sign advertising the pleasures of using the canal as an open-air gym!

Rowde Church, pictured lowermost can be dated from around 1215, when mention is made of the first priest who served there.   It is a lovely church with an enormous Yew tree in the grave yard.   http://www.rowdevillage.co.uk/

Moored boats at the top of the "Caen Hill Flight" of locks.



A Britishwaterways van advertising the leisure opportunities of the canal.




A quintessenntially English Church, St. Matthew's in  Rowde.