Day 17: The Bridgwater and Taunton Canal

Distance: 14.5 miles
Angry swans: 2

Today, we start with a quiz. On Friday, while passing through the hamlet of Sampson Peverell on our way to a pub, we looked a map board, and in the north east corner was something marked "Boobery". "What on earth is a boobery?" we wondered. Any guesses? We'll give the answer tomorrow. No fair asking Google (even though that's what we had to do).

Something we occasionally get asked is "what charity are you supporting?". This first happened a couple of weeks before we left. I did a run with my friend Larry, and his friend Greg, an Englishman, who asked the question and suggested that we really should have one. It seems that this is a fairly common thing on this side of the pond. When you do something physically challenging - a marathon, a big walk - you do it in support of some organization, and your friends and family give money. Since it keeps happening, its led us to think that maybe we should pick charity. It should be something British, since we are guests here. So far, I've come up with two contenders.

First is an amazing organization called the National Trust, whose goal is to save Britain's heritage and open spaces. Their holdings include some of the cliffs we walked along in Cornwall, castles, country homes, John Lennon's childhood home, and Hogwarts.


But my favorite British charity, so far, is CAMRA: the campaign for real ale. Their goal is to promote what they call real ale: beer that is not pasteurized, and served without carbon dioxide injected into it. In America, we'd call this style of beer cask conditioned. CAMRA also advocates for lower beer taxes, and the promotion of traditional British pubs. They've been hugely successful. I think every pub we've been in has offered several real ales. And I've done my bit, by drinking the real ales, and enjoying the ambience of real pubs.

When started our walk, St Austelles was the dominant brewery. And their Tribute is a nice ale. They have an IPA, "Proper Job" that they advertise as "powerfully hopped", though to my taste buds, trained in the Pacific Northwest, that really means "just a hint of hoppiness". As we progressed, I discovered the Dartmoor Brewery, which makes beers with water right off of the moor. But my favorite so far is Otter Brewery. You see, Tony, not all otters are troubled: some make delicious ales! The last couple of days, I've taken Steve's advice and tried the local Somerset ciders. Great stuff; I don't usually like fruity beer, but this just really works for me. And I'm pleased to say that CAMRA has expanded their mission to advocate for real cider as well.



Today, we walked the length of the Bridgwater and Taunton canal, another canal completed in the first half of the nineteenth century, just in time for the railroad to make it obsolete. But unlike the Grand Western we've been walking, this one was never completely abandoned, the locks all still work, and the entire length is navigable. What is nice for us is that there is a foot and bicycle path for the entire length.


On a beautiful Sunday like today, there were loads of people, and dogs, all in a great mood, out walking, cycling, fishing, and kayaking.

There was lots to see. In a cool twist, somebody has turned this into a space walk, where each planet in the solar system has a little plaque, arranged at distances proportional to how far apart they really are. So the sun, Mercury, Venus, and Earth are pretty much bang-bang-bang, but it's quite a hike from Jupiter to Saturn. We were happy they didn't rip out the Pluto monument.


There was lots of wildlife as well, just like there was on out walk from Tiverton. We could see loads of small fish just below the surface, and there were fishermen every hundred yards, so there must be bigger fish as well. And there were ducks, rabbits - all kinds of things.


Oh and swans. We walked by one pair that was up on shore on our side. They got mad when we passed. Puffed up big, hissing, they are pretty scary animals. No pictures of that pair; we were too busy running out of the way.


Although the canal was not commercially important in the twentieth century, it did play a historical role. Since the canal is nice and straight, and deep enough that tanks can't just roll through, it became part of the Taunton Stop Line, one of 50 defensive lines created to stop the German invasion that everyone thought was coming in the summer of 1940. All the pretty bridges that I've been photographing were rigged with explosives, and the line included hundreds of concrete pill boxes, many of which remain. Looking inside, it looks like this one is now used to store jars of what looks like marmalade.


We got a late start today, since we were reluctant to leave our sweet suite at yesterday's castle, so by half past twelve we were a bit tired and peckish. We planned to stop at the next bench for a swallow of water and a biscuit. But then ... a tea shop! Just when we needed it most. Sometimes things just all come together. Can you see Dawn? She's just right of center.


Stoked by a pot of tea and home made cake, we made quick work of the remaining six flat miles in the sun. Tonight we're staying at the Old Vicar's House pub; it's across from a beautiful old church, so the name must be related to that. The spire of this church is 114 feet high and was built in 1367. It sits on a 64 foot tower that was built before that.


Oh, and here's proof that I do have the necessary reflexes to take pictures of trains.


Tomorrow we are back to picking our way along various lanes and footpaths through the Somerset levels to Glastonbury. It's a bit of a longer walk than the past couple of days, but the weather looks great, so hopefully it will work out well.

Location:St Mary St,Bridgwater,United Kingdom