It'll be Allright on the Night

Well, things are gathering apace. The 2012 DW approaches and yours truly has been co-opted into the support crew for Adam and Wheezy’s attempt this year. Wheezy’s training runs up and down the Surrey end of the Thames, is to be shifted this weekend to t’other end of the course for a one-off training run. This one is going from Pewsey to Aldermaston because it has the added attraction(?) of getting a bit of practice in with locks, and the portaging thereof.

I thought that it would be nice if I could make sure that I would know the course well enough to be able to meet up with ‘my’ crew once in a while, to be able to throw them a biscuit or two as we passed each other. To make the odds of that occurring once in a while better, Mrs D and I took a trip out to that part of the world on Thursday last and headed for Pewsey Wharf. There was no real problem finding it, Sylvia the SatNav spelled out the way in fine fashion. We spent a pleasant half-hour stretching legs after the drive, taking in the scenery and generally getting orientated, or not.

We were armed with the instruction blurb for support crews from the DW site. Now I have to say that these directions are probably OK for someone navigating from the race start, but if you’re starting in the middle, so to speak, a certain amount of confusion can reign. At any rate the net result was that we started off for the next location in exactly the opposite direction to that required. A little later we found the error of our ways and backtracked, arriving at Pewsey Wharf again. Setting off again we eventually arrived at Wooton Rivers.

Perhaps it’s best if a veil is drawn over the rest of the afternoon. Meeting at ‘Crofton lock‘ could be at any one of half a dozen places. We settled on one which was the easiest for us and is going to have to do for everyone else. Later we found signs for closed approach roads in the Thatcham to Aldermaston area starting 12 March and extending for six weeks. Now that doesn’t bode well for next weekend or for the Easter weekend of the race. But I suppose that if we don’t see our crew again they could always just keep paddling to Teddington and we could pick them up from there.

The upshot of all this is that I’m not really sure if this little excursion was such a good idea. Most of these locks seem to look pretty much the same as one another. Consequently they all seem to have melded one into another and I’m not entirely sure if it was any help at all. Really I should have used my usual approach of ‘It’ll be alright on the night‘ and just trusted to luck.

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