The River Thames
15 miles 6 locks We had a disturbed night. Some drunks were very loud by our boat around two o’clock in the morning. It sounded like one actually went into the water. Despite the lack of sleep we were still away by 7:15. We did the first Thames locks on our own as the lockies
Our original intention was to stop at Wallingford last night, which is more like half way between Oxford and Reading. But in the past we have found it difficult to get a mooring at Wallingford, hence the decision yesterday to stay a Abingdon. However that made for a longer day today as our Thames licence
An interesting day today! We set off early as the forecast was for another hot day. As we approached Duke’s cut lock we could see a small GRP cruiser in there. It was crewed by two young men (they looked like students). They appeared to be having problems, so we went up to take a
A short day today. We decided to make the most of the day left on our Thames licence by just chugging along slowly so we would get one more day on the river. Also the temperature was very hot so an early stop would be welcome. The Thames above Oxford is really beautiful and full
For the last few days we have been at Lechlade with our daughters, son in laws and most of our grandchildren. They were camping at Bridge House campsite. The time was spent chilling out, walking and playing pooh sticks at Inglesham Footbridge. They all left this afternoon so we set off downstream for a few hours
We woke up to a clear, cloudless sky. Even though we had planned a lie in, we were away by 8:15 to take advantage of the lovely sunny weather. Another slow chug day. We first thought that we would stop short of Lechlade and then finish the journey tomorrow. But we couldn’t find a suitable
Only a short, slow chug today. We dont need to get to Lechlade until Friday so have plenty of time. Lots of bird wathing today. We saw several Red Kites, Buzzards, a Kestrel catching a vole, geese (Barnacle, Canada & Greylag) and two Little Egrets. We made a short stop for lunch at Newbridge, then
We are now on the Thames. Even though we are heading for Lechlade we started off going downstream. Our usual early start saw us at Osney Lock before 8 o’clock, we also passed through Iffey Lock before the lock keeper was on duty. So is wasnt until Sandford that we had to pay our Thames
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