This navigation is a confluence of canal and river and is really the River Avon made navigable by a series of locks bypassing weirs to maintain water levels and control the flow eg floodwaters.

There are 6 such wier/lock pairs along the 15 miles of the navigation. This is terminated at the eastern end at a stand alone lock own raising the level to the start of the K & A canal proper, which then heads off east to meet the Thames at Reading. At the western end a stand alone lock lowers water level to the constant height of Bristol’s wonderful Floating Harbour. This harbour was originally the River Avon, then modified to maintain a constant water level using a lock at either end and a new relief River Avon built to the south to isolate the now tidal river from the Bristol docks. This diverted stretch is highly tidal and effectively non-navigable by narrow boats.

There is mooring all the way along the route and also limited moorings in the Floating Harbour which is well worth visiting even if you go no further towards the Severn estuary.

The scenery along the route is pretty rural without many notable scenes photographically, so my slideshow is to be considered more as documentary rather than a striking visual experience. Also being a river, many of the locks or wiers are not easily reached except by boat and even then the wiers are hard to view.

Below is a Google map with the main features I was able to visit way-marked. You can also view the usual  slideshow of photos I took.

View Bath to Bristol in a larger map