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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
3 miles and 3 locks boating 6 miles cycling 3 miles walking We set off for the short trip to moor just above Dukes lock. We have moored there before and it’s convenient to go out onto the Thames via Duke’s cut. But when we got there all the available visitors space was taken. So