Terrific thunderstorms during the night. It started about 4 o’clock, really hard rain, loud thunder and lightening. But by the morning it had stopped and the sky was mostly grey, but with some blue. 10 locks and 9.5 miles today. Yesterday we shared all the locks, today we shared none. In fact we saw very
Hot, hot, hot today. It’s still 26 C at five o’clock! Shortly after setting off this morning we caught up with narrowboat ‘Amy’ at Woolhampton swing bridge. They let us through and we then spent the rest of the day with them sharing the next ten locks, and several swing bridges. We worked together well
10.5 miles and 11 locks today. We set off at 7:05. It was warmish then, but has got much hotter, peaking at 27 °C at around 4:30. Last time we came this way we got exhausted on this stretch as we tried to do too much. Today we have taken it easier. The river through
Not moved today. Actually that’s not quite correct. We pulled forward into the space vacated by the boat infront in order to move a little further from the busy road. The day was spent wandering arounf Reading and going for an 8+ mile bike ride upstream for a while, then down to Sonning lock and
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
Before we did anything else today the boat had to be cleaned. So we moved a few yards to the lock and washed the dirtiest side that we couldn’t reach last night. All this was at 6:30 am ! A really good day weatherwise. To start with we saw far fewer boats than yesterday, but
We arrived at the marina yesterday and found these next to the boat. Some shopping for foood and stuff yestarday then an early night. Off and away at 7:30 in a lovely bright and sunny morning. At only the second lock there were 8 boats (4 up and 4 down including us). But it calmed
When we had the engine services before Christmas Clive mentioned that our diesel tank was rather contaminated with water and crud. He recommended that we have the fuel ‘polished’. This is achieved by passing the fuel contents repeatedly through a series of filters. We contacted Tankbusters who came today to carry out the polishing. It
Another cooked breakfast ! Then journeying on to just opposite the engine arm at the top of the Napton flight. We are due to meet up with some other Cutwebbers in the Folly Inn this evening. We will walk down the locks as we dont have time tomorrow to get back to the marina if we