Woolhampton to Reading

Sun 23rd Jul  Woolhampton

We got to the station in time for the 0832 to Newbury, and the overhead display said that the train was on time. Then a few minutes later a mysterious voice came seemingly out of the hedge “We regret to announce that the 0832 Great Western Service service has been delayed”.  Yes she did say service twice. There was no information about how long for, or why.  After another ten minutes, we pushed a button on an information machine and spoke to another voice, who said the train was delayed by eighteen minutes.

Eventually it arrived and we took the 11 minute ride into Newbury, which had taken four hours by boat.

We found a Wetherspoons for breakfast, and eggs royale was not possible, so we had salmon and cream cheese on a bagel.

We were still in time for the 10am service at St Nics, where we saw David and Frances once again, and enjoyed meeting some other people as well. The text was psalm 150, and the subject was praise.  There were some great songs played well by the musicians.

Kids on percussion at St Nics

We headed for the Newbury Canal Festival on Victoria Park, and found Peter and Lin wearing Beatles wigs, and John and Barbara in their boating outfits. We had some food from the stalls, and sampled some excellent cider in the beer tent.

Beatles wigs

While we were chatting to a young couple at our table, we spotted Babs and went to say hello. Then we saw Jim Sibley and bought him a beer, just as David and Frances arrived. What a sociable time we had.

We gave away one of John and Barbara’s Bibles to the people on Manasseh plus some other literature to various people.  Then Chris and Sally Buck arrived. It was good to see them again.

 Duck race

Heavy rain had been forecast but, apart from a couple of light passing showers, the rain held off until packing up time.  A lot of people came on board Ichthus and Gospel Belle and it was a very successful event.

We were expecting Amanda to visit us from Poole, and she arrived soon after 5pm, at which point it was raining and we were on Ichthus.  We went in her car back to Woolhampton and tried to park in the Rowbarge car park. The place was packed out and we parked in the last remaining space.  We enquired about a table, and were told it was all booked until 7.30pm. “That’ll do” we said, and we took all the things we needed back to the boat.

When returned to the pub at the appointed time, the place was nowhere near so full, and we had a pleasant meal.  We arranged for Amanda to leave her car there until the next day, as she had decided to stay on the boat overnight and cruise a short way with is in the morning.

James went to find a post box to send a letter to Kier.

No boating today

Mon 24th Jul  Woolhampton to Ufton Meadows

After rain in the night, James went to buy some milk from the village shop, which was open this time.

We managed to be first away from the mooring, although another boat had passed us and gone down the lock.  James and Amanda set the lock, and then James took over steering while Hazel went to operate the swing bridge. Despite all the stories about mishaps at this lock, there was no trouble getting out of the lock, into the stream, and through the swingbridge.

Woolhampton Lock

Woolhampton Swing Bridge

There were some awkward trees hanging low over the water where the river section zigzags, and CRT really should send a team out with a small boat and a chainsaw to deal with it.

We arrived at Aldermaston and took the boat down through the very large lock, and immediately turned left to gain access to the facilities. This was inconvenient for the five fishermen who were set up on the mooring bollards, so they moved.

Aldermaston

The tap is at the far end, after the small building, and there is no bollard where it is needed, so we had to tie on with the centre line and stern line.  The elsan disposal place is just a hole in a concrete floor – not very nice.  The rubbish bins were OK but there is no recycling here, so despite separating everything out as we always do on the boat, everything ended up in the one bin.

When we were almost finished, Stella, a widebeam moored where we were last night, came down through the lock and needed the water point. We moved out, turned round and moored on the end of the line, leaving them room to go where we had just been.  They had friends arriving to meet them, and then they left.  We had lunch, and when we had almost finished another boat arrived, My Diadem. It turned out that they (Clive and Sally) were Christians and had met several of our team already. We exchanged details and leaflets, and then yet another boat arrived who needed the facilities. We set off through the lift bridge, and said farewell to Amanda, who went to the station and caught a train back to Woolhampton, a four minute journey.

Farewell to Amanda

We carried on past lots of hire boats, through Padworth Lock and Swing Bridge.  Towney Lock comes next and is deeper than most and the following half mile is lower than it used to be, which took away the need for Ufton Lock, which used to be less than 2ft deep, and is now de-gated.  Ufton Swing Bridge was our last obstacle before finding a pleasant mooring on meadows, tied to trees.

Moth Mullein

Elderflower

Ufton Swing Bridge and the old lock

Hazel put out the washing to dry.

Later on, Ozzie the fuel boat came past and we bought some diesel from him. The trees made it very awkward and he doesn’t have a bow thruster. He lost two gas bottles off the roof, but fortunately they were chained on.

Manasseh going past

Ozzie in the bushes

 More bushes

4 locks, 4 miles, 2 swing bridges, 1 lift bridge

Tue 25th Jul  Ufton Meadows to Reading

Mist on the meadow

Misty morning

There was a mist over the meadows this morning.  We had heard that tomorrow was forecast to be wet, so we decided to go straight into Reading rather than pause halfway.

Moored on the meadows

Greylag geese

Champagne Charlee passed us very early, long before we were ready to move.

At Tyle Mill Lock and swingbridge we discovered that there wasn’t quite enough room for the boat between the lock and the bridge, so we had to leave the lock gates open while James operated the swing bridge, coming back later to close up the lock.  Ozzie’s fuel boat was moored by the facilities.

Tyle Mill Lock

Tyle Mill

At Sheffield Lock we had an example of the irregular shaft sizes on the paddle gear. They do not fit the usual windlasses.

Sheffield Lock

Too tight

 Too loose

Red Admiral passenger

Sulhamstead Swing Bridge was a push and shove one, but Theale Swing Bridge was smoothly operated with a key.

Garston Lock is turf sided, like Monkey Marsh Lock, and it has a WWII pillbox each side.

Garston Lock and pillboxes

Inside the pillbox

Turf sided

Thistle

M4 graffiti

Ragwort

Old Mans Beard flowers

There is a river section with sharp bends leading down to Burghfield, and the trees need to be cut back as they overhang just where the boat needs to be to get round the corners.

Burghfield Bridge

 Pennywort on the final river section

At Southcot Lock we caught up with Champagne Charlee. The two lads were new to boating, having just bought the boat a few days ago. Every action was slow They were hoping to get to Oxford by this evening until we pointed out that it was already gone midday, we are not yet in Reading, and it takes thirteen hours from Reading to Oxford.

We went first from the lock, and we waited ten minutes for them at Fobney Lock. As we were ready to exit the lock, another boat was waiting to enter from below, so we used the ladders to get back on board.  We were so far ahead by the time we got to County Lock that we went through without Champagne Charlee.

County Lock

Through the Oracle we noticed several changes even since we were here a few weeks ago.  They now had a beach bar, with sand, deck chairs and swing seats.

The Oracle

On arrival at the Abbey Ruins, we found Paws 4 Thought, with Tony and Pat. We thought they might be here.  They were going for a meal at Zizzi’s to celebrate their ruby wedding.

Paws in Reading

We had moored under the horse chestnut trees which dropped blossom on our boat a few weeks ago. This time there was a squirrel chewing conkers above us, scattering bits all over our stern.

Moored by the abbey ruins

Bits of conker

We went for a meal at Cosmo, a buffet restaurant where the food was good, but it was very busy and a bit of a scrum as people wandered around trying to decide what to eat next.

When we returned to the boat we found that John and Barbara had arrived on Ichthus, but they had gone out for a meal (as one does in Reading).

It was a warm evening, and some of the Reading human wildlife were playing moron music through a ghetto blaster at a high volume on a bench not far away. Thankfully they departed at about 10pm.

8 locks, 8 miles, 3 swing bridges.

Wed 26th Jul  Reading

The rain arrived as forecast at around 8am.  Two boats arrived and one of them found a mooring.  Wearing their waterproofs, John and Barbara left on Ichthus, announcing that they were heading down the Thames. This left space for the second boat.  A third boat arrived soon after, Lincoln Imp, and we invited them to tie alongside Gabriel.

Hazel went off to the shops and Specsavers. James wrote up the blog, and went to M&S for some jeans. His old ones have fashionable splits just above the knee, because they have had a lot of use and the fabric is very thin.

The rain had finished and we met up for lunch at some street stalls near Tesco Express, before returning to the boat.

Two young lads later walked along all the boats, trying the side doors.

No boating today. No pics either.

Next:  Out onto the Thames and floating gently down the stream towards Weybridge.