Wey is National Trust so you have to pay for an expensive extra licence. And, you’ll need to hire a with class from them. Depending on what you are doing  after the Way, you can get a 24 hour transit licence to get you from there to Teddington.

Cant help you with the Basingstoke as it was closed when we were on the Wey. I gather some of it is open now but again you need another licence, the staff that run it are said to be non-boater friendly, I don’t think you can get to the end, and there are some very shallow bits. So I understand from other forums.

If its still open by the time we get there we might give it a try. At the rate we are moving at present it us likely to be October so probably closed again by then.

Regards

Pete

Hi Paul

I may try the Wey this year so will be very interested to hear how you get on.

Alan

Sorry to resurrect an old post but I’m after cruising these two myself so if anyone has any info – recent or otherwise, do post!

From my findings thus far the Basingstoke (Basingstoke canal authority) you have to phone a day ahead and/or fill in your lock times on the license application form. It’s £90 for 28 days and that’s the most you can have. Also lock days are Sat/Sun/tues/thurs.

The Wey is NT and there is a 21 day license for £80-100 depending on boat length (less if you have a tiddler).

Neither sound like they actually want any visiting boats, with the Wey promising a £25 per day charge if you don’t make it out in time.

Neither offer long enough to explore thoroughly in my opinion – the water yes, but not if you like to do a bit of hiking and/or town visits. I wonder if you can go from one to the other in succession? Perhaps no one has ever wanted to go back!

It seems that one has to have a normal (crt in my case) license then buy the licenses for the Basingstoke and Wey on top – bit unfair as you can of course only be in one place at a time.

However – and I have not found confirmation that the two navigations in question will even be open – I may buy a gold license in January, then I can go from Brentford to the two navigations, and afterwards go along the Thames to the K&A or if I’m too early do a bit of the Oxford – but I really wanted to save that for when I head back up the country proper.

So it looks like it is going to cost a fortune in licenses – so much that I may not afford it, bearing in mind money still needs to be spent on the boat.