Kensal Green

15 miles and 10 locks. The boat moored behind us last night went past at about 6:30, we had breakfast and then started out. We did the lock at the bottom of the Hanwell flight on our own. We could see the other boat ahead in the next lock. He was single handed so waited

Brentford

We are now off of the Thames and on the Grand Union canal, though strictly at this point it’s the river Brent. We left our mooring at about 11:00 for a slow chug down to Teddington lock to await the tide. The usual advice for narrowboats making the Teddington to Brentford passage is to go

Platt’s Eyot

Hot, hot, hot!! It has been about 35°C today – We haven’t coped well! We made our usual early start and it was a pleasant journey down through Staines, Chertsey, Weybridge and Walton on Thames. We started looking for a mooring at about noon and found this one at 12:30. It’s not particularly picturesque, opposite

Runnymede

It’s been REALLY hot today. An early start, then stop when it got too hot, was the plan for the day. It gets difficult to find good moorings after about two o’clock anyway. So we had breakfast and were away before eight. We soon arrived at Boulter’s Lock in Maidenhead. This is the subject of

Cookham lock

As usual we made an early is start. Through Henley again and down the regatta course for the second time. The arrangements for all the corporate hospitality were well under way. I wonder how many of the people in there will be watching the rowing?! On down to Marlow where we stopped on good local

Above Marsh Lock

A trip to Tesco to stock up then back up to Sonning to drop of the Downs family. Unfortunately it rained most of the way! The rain had stopped when we had got there. Lunch of sausage and mash was readily consumed then it was time for them to go. After they left we went

Henley on Thames

After breakfast we took two very excited girls for a ride, chugging slowly down river. They were most keen to feed the ducks and geese. We had said earlier that they shouldn’t feed them bread, but  grain instead. They had brought a large bag of wild bird food for the purpose. Unfortunately the birds hadn’t

Sonning

An early start as we needed to find a suitable place to meet Nik, Paul, Izzie & Roxie. As we came through Reading there was a new pedestrian bridge being built. It is a suspended design, and they are building out across the river in sections. As we came down through Sonning bridge we could

Just south of Wallingford

We left Oxford at around 7:00 am, the weather all day has been lovely and warm. We worked the first two Thames locks on our own as the lock keepers don’t come on duty until 9:00. The flower beds at Iffley lock were looking really great: A stop at Abingdon for breakfast and some shopping

Still in Oxford

A day of culture today. First we cycled to the Oxford Botanic garden. This is great, we really enjoyed it. The herbaceous flowers  were at their best – really impressive.   We stayed here all morning and ate our lunch (just a sandwich from Boots!) in the grounds. Back on the bikes to go back