Sun 19th April
Wallingford to Beale Park
A bit colder this morning.
It even looked like rain, so we took a brolly as we walked into the
village to go to Ridgeway Community Church. We have been here several times
before, and it is always worth the visit.
The church is very involved in the community, and this time there were
reports back from the HOTS team (healing on the street). The worship was excellent, and the talk was
inspired, dealing with spiritual warfare. We are asked to make a stand in the
face of the enemy. Ephesians 6. They
had a bring and share meal going on and invited us to stay, but we had to move
on.
Part of the worship
team at Ridgeway Community Church
We went to Waitrose for some shopping, and then paused at an
Indian restaurant for a buffet, which was freshly prepared and very good.
Wallingford Bridge
We set off, wrapped up in warm clothes, heading south. The
stretch from Wallingford to Cleeve Lock is one of the longest reaches with
little of special interest. One arch of Gatehampton Railway Bridge was closed
to traffic as they were making repairs. Brunel’s original bridge was duplicated
to add more tracks, so now there are two bridges ten feet apart. To make
repairs to the brickwork, the engineers had erected walkways suspended between
the two bridges. As the ferry is now
closed, would it be possible to construct a Thames Path footbridge here I
wonder?
Gatehampton Bridge
maintenance works
The platforms between
the two bridges
We saw a kingfisher, and a few kites, and we had to
negotiate a sailing club’s manoeuvres.
The sailing club
challenge
There was very little on the river. The lockkeeper at Cleeve
said he was also covering Goring, so when we got there it was
self-service.
Goring Lock
As we left there, we lit the fire for the first time for
ages, and by the time we arrived at Beale Park to moor up, it was going
nicely. Then the sun came out!!!
We saw our first baby birds of the season – Egyptian Geese.
Cows near Beale Park
Moored at Beale Park
Reflection art
It was all a bit too open for Hugo who likes his
bushes. Too many geese as well, who
were making lots of noise defending their territory. There were also some unusual bird noises coming from the wildlife
park, where they have tropical birds, owls, flamingos etc.
2 locks, 10 miles
Mon 20th April
Beale Park to Hallsmead Ait
Morning Mist at Beale
Park
Reflection art
Reflection art
Thick mist on the water this morning, and a heavy dew. The mooring pins were tough to pull up, as
the ground was full of water, and as the pins were withdrawn, a vacuum was
created, making a satisfactory sucking noise.
The pins then needed to be rinsed in the river, as they were very muddy.
Setting off from
Beale Park
We had a lovely cruise down to Whitchurch Lock, past the
Swan at Pangbourne, where the “Three Men in a Boat” finished their
adventure. Below Whitchurch Lock the
refurbished toll bridge was looking very smart and freshly painted. Then past Pangbourne meadows and the alpaca
farm to Mapledurham, where we emptied two cassettes. The rubbish facility was
closed.
The Swan at
Pangbourne
The refurbished toll
bridge at Whitchurch
Alpaca Farm
Sleeping grebes
Mapledurham House and
church
After Mapledurham there is a long straight reach alongside
the railway near Tilehurst before the site of the Reading Festival, and the
omni-present huge gathering of swans that herald Reading.
Caversham Bridge
We moored opposite Caversham Boat Services, on some handy
rings. Hazel went to Aldi to stock up, while James walked into the centre of
Reading to visit Sweeney and Todd, the pie shop. With two pies in a bag, he returned triumphantly to Aldi to help
Hazel finish the shopping. These pies
are superb, and worth a special detour.
Sweeney Todd
Back on board we had a brief lunch, and set off in pursuit
of another narrowboat which went past, so that we could share Caversham
lock. They were heading for the Kennet
and Avon Canal.
Opposite Tesco we spotted a pair of Australian black swans,
with two cygnets. It is good to know
they are breeding again. We saw a
family of four cygnets here a few years ago.
We also saw several other families of young birds: Greylag geese,
Egyptian geese, Mandarin ducks, and Mallards.
Others were on their nests: Mute Swans, Coots and Moorhens. One Canada goose was nesting on someone’s
thatched roof.
Greylag family
After Sonning lock we found a mooring on Hallsmead Ait, one
of two islands we like to use upstream from Henley.
James managed to pick our first wildflowers: summer
snowflake. We have not seen these
before, as we are not usually out in April. They are like giant snowdrops, and
form great carpets of white.
Summer Snowflake
Summer Snowflake
Hugo Sniffing around
at Hallsmead Ait
4 locks, 12 miles
Tue 21st April
Hallsmead Ait to Cliveden
We are having amazing weather for April. A lovely sunny
morning greeted us as we set off once more downstream.
Morning reflections
Reflection art
At Shiplake Lock we filled up with water and disposed of the
rubbish. It is a great shame that there
are not more recycling opportunities when we are boating. We have two bins on board, and always
separate the recyclable material from the landfill bits, and then we find three
huge wheelie bins all marked “general waste”, so it all gets put back together
again. One would have thought that an
outfit like the Environment Agency would have arranged a recycling
facility at all their rubbish disposal points.
We continued our cruise down through Wargrave with its huge
houses, and then Marsh Lock before gently floating down through Henley.
Riverside cottage
with mooring
Paddle steamer at
Henley
Henley
Then it was the mooring rip-off area, where you get charged
£8 if you stop even for a few moments. This goes for five miles, through
Hambleden and Medmenham to Hurley. We
always see red kites along this stretch, and this time we saw four swans in
formation flying overhead.
Hambleden Mill and
weir
Red Kites
Swan flypast
We didn’t need to stop for the facilities at Hurley, and we
shared a lock with a working open tugboat, sixty years old. He was working on a job that necessitated
him moving up and down through Hurley and Temple Locks. He had already come up through both locks
earlier with no problems, but as we came to Temple Lock we discovered that it
was now being operated manually, because the electrics had failed. Without power, the way to open the sluices
and gates is hydraulically, by turning a wheel many many times. Before the locks were all changed over to
powered self-service, many of the locks were operated in this backbreaking way.
We thought those days were over, but not today.
The dreaded wheel at
Temple Lock
We continued our journey through Marlow and past the dog
walking field at Bourne End where there were 19 dogs this time. The final lock
of the day was Cookham, which leads through to the spectacular wooded cliff,
which accompanies Cliveden Deep for a mile downstream to the islands known as
Bavin’s Gulls, where we planned to moor.
We found a delightful spot where we were able to put our chairs on the
grass and relax for the afternoon.
Marlow Suspension
Bridge
Cookham Lock
Cliveden Reach
Cliveden Islands
Hugo surveys his
island
7 locks, 17 miles, 1 mouse
Wed 22nd April
Cliveden to Runnymede
The boat was in shadow this morning so it was good to start
cruising and move to the other side of the river where the sun was shining. We
noticed a large amount of mistletoe on the trees along the bank, perhaps more
visible because the leaves of the trees aren’t fully out yet.
We also saw a dredger at work at the entrance to the Jubilee
River, ensuring that future floodwater does not affect Maidenhead, but instead
rushes straight down to flood the good people of Datchet.
Mistletoe at Cliveden
Deep
Dredging at the start
of the Jubilee River
At Boulter’s Lock it was good to renew our acquaintance with
Rob the lockkeeper who always encourages us with his strong Christian
faith. Then we continued our journey
through Maidenhead, under the road bridge, and then Brunel’s railway bridge,
which apparently has the longest brick-built span in the world.
Leaving Boulter’s
Lock
Maidenhead Bridge
Brunel’s sounding
arch
At Bray Lock we shared with a boat called the Venturer,
which used to belong to an Oxfordshire charity and had a hoist and platform for
wheelchairs. It had been named by
Prince Charles, and there was a picture of him inside. It was now privately owned by two guys, and
on the platform were two motorbikes.
They had had some very long days, and were hoping to get to Uxbridge by
this evening. They had started at 5am.
They were slower than we were so we overtook them soon after
leaving the lock. A cruiser pulled out
of Bray Marina ahead of us, and they were going faster than we were. So the
three boats were gradually getting wider apart. At Boveney Lock, the cruiser went in, and, to our surprise, the
gates closed. We soon realised why, as
the hotel boat Magna Carta was waiting to come up. We then shared the lock with Venturer.
Boveney Church
Waiting for Magna
Carta
At Windsor we spotted a full size model of a Hurricane
aircraft as a memorial to the planes designer who lived nearby. Then we were in Romney Lock with Venturer
and another narrowboat.
A Hurricane at
Windsor
The Venturer at
Romney Lock
After Old Windsor Lock, we paused at the Bells of Ouzeley to
meet Mary Sibley for lunch. Her husband
Jim is in hospital having brain surgery today to remove a lump. We heard later
that the operation had been a success. We passed Ankerwyke Priory, where there
was some work going on to get the site ready for the forthcoming Magna Carta
celebrations.
Ankerwyke Priory
We stopped for the day at one of our frequent mooring spots
behind a big brown warehouse at Runnymede. Apart from the aircraft heading into
Heathrow, and the noise from the M25 a mile away, this is quite a pleasant
place.
The brown warehouse
at Runnymede
5 locks, 13 miles
Thu 23rd April
Runnymede to Weybridge
James washed one side of then boat before we left, and the
chap from the only other boat came and chatted. He moors in Penton Hook Marina.
As we approached Bell Weir Lock there was a large fibreglass
hire boat already descending, but very slowly.
We realised it was self-service, but the sign had not been changed. James offered to close the bottom gates for
them so that they could be on their way, and then he walked to the top gates
and started to fill the chamber, with the plan that Hazel would take the boat
in. It was very slow to fill, and two
other boats appeared from upstream.
Hazel decided she wanted to operate the lock and James would steer, so
we changed places
One of the other boats was a white cruiser, and the other
was a narrowboat called Mystic Moon. The lady owner said she was going
to spend a month in London talking to people about death! She was going down the tideway to Limehouse
on Sunday.
The cruiser left us after Penton Hook Lock, and we stayed
behind after Chertsey Lock to use the water tap. There was an amazing assortment of adaptors and connectors from
the tap to the hose.
Leaving Chertsey Lock
Plumbing nightmare
Chertsey Bridge
Egyptian Goose in
Flight
We had Shepperton Lock to ourselves and found a mooring
place on what we call the Weybridge Wall.
We then had a pleasant sunny afternoon relaxing, before meeting our good
friends Graham and Sheila for a meal at the Old Crown.
The Weybridge Wall
Graham and Sheila
4 locks, 7 miles
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