Thames again

One of the locks on the Caen Hill flight

At last we are back on the Thames. I must admit I really do like it, big water and lots going on. The moorings are a bit few and far between but a lot of them are perfect for Max and mousing!! He is bloody good, off the boat, mouse caught and back in the boat so quick and then I am bloody chasing after mousy. I wish he wouldn't bring us live presents!!!

The trip back to the Thames from Bath was largely uneventful. We had quite a lot of time without, TV, phone or a computer signal so felt bit out of it. When we did get a signal all sorts had happened in the world, unfortunately nothing good.

One of the more interesting stops was at a pub called 'The Barge' at Honeystreet. This area is famous for 'crop circles'. There are photos of all the local circles on the walls of the pub. It is also a meeting place for 'croppies', like train spotters but crop circles instead. Would you believe we actually sat next to some with their computers studying the latest circles.

Passed a couple of local boats from the Peterborough area. The Wee Fella, Rodgy Rodgy and one from Oundle with no name. Didn't get chance to chat which was a shame.

We also bumped into a hire boat with twelve teenagers!! What a nightmare, and it was, we locked with them, but not for long, they found a pub and stopped, lucky us!! We also bumped into the horse drawn trip boat at Hundgerford, that was quite a treat.

Glad we've got an engine, but it was nice to see how it used to be done

We moored in Reading, which was really nice. We happened to moor next to a boat called 'Lady Dawn'. We had heard of this boat as when going down the flight of 29 locks at Devizes we had heard of two boats getting stuck in lock 38 coming up the flight. Fairy liquid had been used to free the boats. It was nice to meet the lady who was at the tiller on the day, she had to laugh when I told her she was famous!!

Pixie with her owner 'the famous lady in lock 38'

This was probably Max's favourite mooring ever as he had a playmate 'Pixie' a seven month old female tortoishell kitten. They loved to hate each other!!

So back on the Thames and on our way home. We are moored and watching Formula 1, which of course is a must do!

Enjoying the hot, hot weather. So many people are enjoying the water, even swimming in the river, which I haven't seen adults doing in years.

Max eyeing up dinner!!

Mmmm not sure where these are supposed to be going???

Bristol and S.S. Great Britain

S.S. Great Britain

We have just spent the last few days in Bristol. What a really nice place it is. The weather wasn't kind to us and the wind, rain and cold did dampen our visit a little.

We wandered round the old town and found a pub with a Jazz band playing, which was quite unusual.

The hightlight was definitely a visit to see S.S. Great Britain. This ship is fantastic and has a really interesting story spanning 160 years since it was built. It is now back on the sight where it was built in a dry dock. You can walk round the ship and see what it was like to travel on her and the museum goes through all the history. It is the best visitor centre we have ever been to and well worth a visit. Very good value for money on the entrance and the cafe didn't rip us off either.

View from our mooring in Bristol Harbour

Its nice to sit and watch all the ships, boats and canoes etc in the harbour, you never get bored. There are even a few oddities like a galleon!!


We have turned around and are now heading back towards Reading and the Thames. Tonite we are back in Bath, moored in a quiet spot between locks. Well it is quiet as far as cars etc go but very lively with hire boats locking. I have a feeling we will be on the bottom of the canal if any more boats go through tonite and let any more water out!!

This could loosley be described as an oddity!!

Locks, Locks and more Locks

Since we left our mates on the other two boats at Reading we have had quite a different trip. The Kennet and Avon goes from Reading to Bristol and back, so, everyone on it is going basically there and back. This means that you get to meet people on different boats over and over again as they leapfrog you going in the same direction then turn around and come back. We have met so many people. The funny thing is you feel you have known them forever.

Locking with Mick, one of our new friends we feel like we've known 'forever'

The Kennet and Avon is famous for the 'Caen Hill' flight of locks at Devizes. There are 29 in total which have to be completed once started, this takes on average 5-6 hours. We did this flight on Sunday, we were going down. We bumped into Mick at the top of the flight who we had done some locking with a couple of days earlier so we paired up for this flight with him as it would make lighter work of it. Thank god we did, it was shattering. We tied our two boats together for some of the locks so that Ken and I could work together. We started the flight at 09.15 and finished it at 17.25, a long day. We moored, went to the pub for dinner and then sat outside the boat talking to neighbours on other boats. It was such a lovely evening.

Caen Hill Flight at Devizes

I must say we have been really blessed with the weather. The sun has shone on us almost every day. Since leavng home I thnk we have only had a week of bad weather in total. Ken is as brown as a berry.

We are getting closer to Bristol now. We have just been through Bradford-on-Avon. It is a beautiful, old and quaint village/town. However, it has to be the noisiest and busiest damn place I have ever been to. The traffic is horrible and getting across the road is impossible. But I still liked it.

We have just been to Bath. Not sure what I think of Bath atually. We went to see all the usual things like the Roman Baths and the Royal Crescent. There are a lot of shops, a little market and a lot of people. It grew on me as the day went on. The mooring was strangely a bit pongy. There are a lot of seaguls, which Max seemed to ignore really.

Bath Deep Lock - 19 Foot drop!

At the moment we are moored right out in the middle of no-where. Its a great place for Max - no bikes! We got here about tea-time and now it is nearly bed-time, so far we have seen, very strangely, three people, three dogs and three boats!!!!

Funny day today really!!!

Last supper

Its been a really funny day today, topped off with the most amazing dinner for two!! – but more about that later, bit of a catch up first.

We left Windsor and moved onto Marlow. We had a lovely mooring which was perfect for Max and the dogs. The evening was so warm we sat out till late with a beer and just chilled. Max caught a mouse, which he then played with for the next 24 hours before eating it!! We really have been blessed so far with the weather.

Our next trip took us through/past ‘Henley Regatta’. Well what can I say, what an amazing display of boats and people. ‘People watching’ moved into a whole new domain, it really was a sight to see. On our way we had stopped for water at Boveney Lock where we bumped into nb Poppy. We had a lovely chat and Max looked at Sid (Poppy’s cat) through the window and I think they would have liked to play.

Yes, it is really real!!

Henley

Nice boat, boater!!

Boats galore!

Plenty of bars, but plenty of people too

Our mooring for the night was in Sonning, which is a very old, quaint village. We were moored near to Uri Geller’s house. I was a bit worried about my spoons, but they survived the night!!!! The pub here ‘The Bull’ was really old and quite interesting. This was our last night with the others, John, Mary, Trish and Pete.

We headed off next morning for Tesco at Reading for a much needed re-stock of just about everything. All stocked and ready for the Kennet and Avon. We all set off and went through the first lock on the K and A together to gawp at all the big shops at ‘The Oracle’ shopping centre. Then we parted company with the others and waved bye bye.

One of the very last remaining turf locks on the Kennet and Avon

Don't ask!!

Our first night alone we moored outside ‘Cunning Man’ at Burghfield. Nice mooring, nice pub, but they did run out of real ale and Stella!!! We heard later they also ran out of most of the food they were serving. Bit strange when that is their business!

At one of the locks on this stretch we came across the first bit of bad behaviour. Two obnoxious young kids about age ten were misbehaving around the lock. Wasn’t nice at all.

Our next day was totally uneventful, we doubled up with another boat for the locks and moored up next to a big field for Max and chilled out, had a great dinner, cooked by me and fell asleep after watching a DVD.

Back to today!!! The funny day!!! Well it started with beautiful sunshine and a big bang and a cloud of dust!!! A vehicle had ended up on its side not far from the boat. An ambulance appeared very quickly and I am pleased to say there was only walked wounded. Don’t know what happened but it was soon sorted. On our way, and we got to the third lock, ambulance!!!! There was a community trip boat and one of the crew had fainted, fallen and split his head open. The ambulance carted him off and re-delivered him two locks further along, complete with stitches. Not bad service if you ask me. Back on our way, another couple of locks down and the heavens opened. We decided to call it a day and moor for the night at Thatcham. Off we went to check out the pub. Two for a tenner, that’s good we will have dinner here. So I went to order, two dinners, fill in a form, 50% off, £5 please – you could have knocked me over with a feather. This has got to be the cheapest we have eaten on any trip ever!! 10 out of 10 ‘The Swan’ at Thatcham.

Ok then, lets just ignore each other!!!!

Dinner!!

The Thames!!!!!!

Look what time we passed Big Ben - this was AM!!

Beautiful Tower Bridge

The most exciting and looked forward to part of our journey arrived Friday 24th June, the only bit not too welcome was the early start, 5.15am!! Our trip up the tidal river Thames from Limehouse to Teddington. Our friends Jennie and Ian came to stay with us the night before so we could do the trip together. We got up with no problem, Jennie and Ian hadn’t been to sleep, something about Ken’s snoring kept being bandied around. Anyway, we set off through the big lock at 5.15am, it was a bit fresh at this time in the morning as you can imagine. The river is huge and straight away you see the tower bridge, it is the first one you go under. Jennie and I sat at the front snapping away with our cameras, while Ken and Ian did the man thing at the back with the tiller and the radio. Ian did get to speak to London Vessel Traffic Service, which tickled him pink. We got into Teddington lock four hours after we set off. A very smooth, exciting enjoyable four hours with no hiccups or problems.

We saw Jennie and Ian off on the bus at Teddington, then got back on the boat and cruised to Hampton, past Hampton Court Palace. I missed getting any pictures as was making a drink at the time.

We had to make arrangements to go home for a couple of days. So that our boat was safe and we could get good connections we cruised up to Shepperton. This so far was one of the nicest moorings we have had. It was a shame we were actually not going to be there with the boat. Turned out to be the hottest two days of the year as well. On the Sunday we set off early for the train station, which was a two and a half mile walk. Then we waited an hour for the train, which took an hour. Then went for the tube, oh bloody hell, the tube was closed for the day!!!!! We ended up having to get two buses across London, what a nightmare. We missed our connection and had to get a slow train which took forever. Eventually after over 5 hours we landed in Peterborough and got a lift home. We had been invited to a BBQ in the afternoon, so went along there and had a lovely afternoon in the blazing sun with our friends and some of their family who were visiting from Australia.

Monday an even hotter day we traveled to Barnsley to lay our friend to rest. Everything went as well as could be expected but a very, very sad day. We then had to travel back to Shepperton to collect our boat and carry on with our holiday. I am pleased to say the trains, tube and connections all worked fantastically and we even got back to the boat three hours earlier than expected. We were completely worn out, but happy to be back.

Max was very pleased to see us. He had been spoiled rotten by our friends while we were away, thank you John, Mary, Trisha and Pete.

We were chomping at the bit to move off again. We got as far as Staines and the heavens opened and there was a huge thunder storm. We just got inside before the rain fell.

Yesterday we moved on and are now at Windsor, next to Queenie’s house, the castle. Its really nice here, so I think we will stay a couple of days. We saw the changing of the guard this morning, but, I didn’t have my camera and forgot to press record on my phone video, what a plonker I am.

I had been told to seek out the famous fish and chip shop in Windsor, however, there are about a hundred fish and chips shops here. Anyway, we have had chips with loads of salt and vinegar and a wooden fork, only thing missing was the newspaper, they just don’t taste the same nowadays.

I apologise for the lack of pictures, but the signal is so dodgy here that they wouldn't upload. I will put lots of pictures on as soon as I get a signal. Don't know how Queenie puts up with it, she must want fast broadband for her Facebook!!!

London town

Paddington Basin - our home for a few days

And so our journey continues, but, not without the usual ups and downs. The weather has been on and off, when it rains it really does, then the sun comes out and burns us to a frazzle.

One of the rainy days happened to be when Pete broke down in the middle of the canal. Ken ended up head down in the engine bay and eventually got Pete going again. Some more maintenance and repairs were required when we eventually moored up in London.

The morning of the day we were to set off into London didn’t start too well. I woke at 4.00am in the morning and the cat was wowing to go out. Well I was not going to take him for a walk at that time but for some reason the door didn’t look right and I touched it, it flew open and the cat escaped!!!!! Ken and I were running round like headless chickens with the ’Dreamies’ (cat treats) trying to get him to come back. Anyway, Ken decided to get dressed and while he was inside Max came bounding up from about half a mile down the towpath. What a relief, but I am paranoid now about the door. Max is just like a teenager and can’t wait to leave home, but we don’t want him to!!!

Back to bed and up again early to set off. It took seven hours, but thankfully only one lock. We arrived in Paddington Basin, West London at around 4.00pm. We were in the middle of sorting out moorings and a security guard came and set upon Ken and told us ‘NO MOORING’, wrong move. Big argument, misunderstanding, almost fisticuffs, threats of police and British Waterways man!! Anyway, after another couple of hours we were told, ‘yes you can stay’. We knew that because the security guard had given us a letter to say so, but he thought he had given us a letter to say we couldn’t, what a c**k up!

That evening, we all went to Wetherspoons for dinner over in Shepherds Bush.

To get to Paddington Basin from Peterborough Yacht Club takes around 93 hours and there are 130 locks – just thought you might like to know.

We have not TV here but as you would expect excellent dongle reception.

My sister, Caroline, came to visit us Sunday as she was in the area. Due to closures on the tube it took her 3 hours, she wasn’t best pleased, so we fed here and sent her back where she came from. Was really nice to see her. Thank you for visiting sis.

Eying up London

Monday was fine and sunny, so we set off for the London eye and some sight seeing. We did the eye by 12.30. It made me feel a bit dizzy in the big glass pod. Then we walked down the Embankment had chips and ice cream on the way and went to the London Bridge experience, which was hilarious, but you’d have to be there, can’t explain. We walked all the way down to Tower Bridge and walked round the Tower of London. On the way we spied two narrowboats doing the trip down the Thames that we will be doing on Friday, bloody hell, the waves looked a bit big, but we are brave. Called into another Wetherspoons for dinner and caught train back to the boat. I was in bed and fast asleep by 7.30, amazing.

Did the builder lose his plumb bob????

We had quite a quiet day yesterday, doing a few chores and mending Pete’s engine. Went for a drink last night, nothing flash.

Today the idea is to go to Camden market, however, the rain and wind is slightly off putting, so maybe later.

Tomorrow we will travel to Limehouse Basin ready for going on the tidal Thames on Friday.

We are due to go up the Thames on Friday morning at 5.15am. Our friends Jennie and Ian are coming with us for the experience. We are really looking forward to it.

This is what we will be doing on Friday!!!

You don't get waves like that on a canal!!!!!

Back soon to tell you how we get on.

Seems Elvis is alive and well living in a penthouse in the middle of London!!!

Not our best week!!!

Do you like our back garden???

I apologise for the big gap I my blogging but we have had quite a traumatic week. You will understand by the time I finish this blog.

First of all everything started fine and off we cruised down to Leighton Buzzard for a wander round the shops and get a ‘civilization’ fix’. The canal was right in the middle of the town, which is always nice, as carrying shopping can be quite a pain.

Anyway, here things started to go a bit wrong. I sat down to do my last blog and by the time I finished my arm was feeling really painful. Then I started to feel cold and sick. The arm got bigger, hotter and more painful. I spent the next two days virtually asleep while the rest of our mates did all the locks and carried on life as normal. Then I emerged feeling a lot better and suffering cabin fever so couldn’t wait to see people and have a drink. By this time we were moored at Cowroast which has a pub famed for its Thai cuisine. Ken and I sampled this famous grub and boy they were right it was delicious. Just the thing to build my strength back up. I am happy to say I am feeling quite well again. We have no idea what caused the problem, but I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

Thai food and 'Side Pocket for a Toad'!!!

We woke next day to constant rain, so donned our waterproofs and wellies ready for the ensuing 10 locks. It was hard and miserable work. We are three boats traveling which is not ideal, but we have quite a good routine going on. Anyhow, the routine got messed up somehow and Ken and I ended up in a lock on our own trailing behind the others. I was on the boat in the lock and Ken was doing the gates, which I cannot do at the moment because of the arm. All went t**ts up and the boat got caught and started to go down!! I screamed at Ken who closed the bottom paddles and opened the top ones quick enough to re-float the boat, but not before it had tipped nearly 45 degrees to one side. The inside of the boat looked like we had been burgled!! I only lost the lid to one coffee canister, amazing! The experience has left us both very shaken.

The day unfortunately only got worse. We had a message to say Dave Mason, Ken’s best friend had died, no detail or anything. As he had not been ill we were speculating all night what might have happened. All was confirmed the following day with details. Ken went on a bender! I think eight or nine pints later we carried him back to the boat and he thankfully slept till next morning.

The water gypsies!!

The next couple of days had been pretty hard work, lots and lots of locks and long days. At least the sun has been shining, which it is not today. The rain is pouring and we don’t plan to move anywhere.


We are moored now on the outskirts of London at a little place called Croxley (Watford suburb). There is a good pub if we get too bored which we ate at last night, seemed wrong not to when they were doing two meals for £8.95. The food was really good too.

Under the M25!!

M25 from the lock!!

There have been some lovely stretches of canal here, beautiful green tunnels of trees, pretty lock cottages and a lot of houses as we are now getting nearer to highly populated areas.


We have had some laughs. Ken left a paddle up which meant the lock would not empty, duh!!!!! John caught his centre rope in his prop, which stopped his engine dead and he had to sort that out, duh!!! And bless her Trish thought she had a launderette all lined up, got all her washing ready, and guess what, went past the bloomin thing!! You can’t turn round in a canal!!!

Is it a ???????

Narrowboat Wannabe??

Love the fender!!

We set off on Monday for a long day cruising. It was only a 7 lock day so not too demanding!! The canal here is not very interesting, although there are a lot of ducklings and cygnets. Mind you we seem to have enough entertainment traveling with us. Pete broke down with his water getting too hot. The men all got stuck in and he was sorted in no time.

To be efficient at a service stop we all got our toilet cassettes ready to empty at the facilities. Unfortunately John forgot his cassette was out and pee’d in his loo, no cassette, what a mess!!! I have heard an even funnier story regarding loo cassettes not being in situ at the required moment – but think I would get skinned alive if I re-told it.

We moored at Cosgrove, outside a pub, where else and decided to eat in. But, this was a very expensive pub, so didn’t go the whole hog.

Is it a boat or is it a plane???

Max had a lovely towpath with a nice hedge next to it to play on. There are a lot less people and boats here so we could let him play without too much worry. Well, soon after going out he popped back onto the boat, with a shrew between his teeth!! He promptly dropped it and the shrew ran round and round the boat with both Max and me chasing after it. I couldn’t do anything for laughing it must have been a hilarious sight. The shrew, which was really tiny, about the same size as a large bumble bee, disappeared behind the bookcase. It was safe, but Max was fuming and watched and waited. By this time we had moved off, so basically the shrew was going to be relocated. It eventually came out, Max chased it, Ken caught it and put it outside at Wolverton.

We moored up later at Campbell Park. We thought this an ideal place for a cat, but unfortunately we had to rescue him twice. Once he climbed a tree and couldn’t get down so Ken had to climb up after him. Then Max got attacked by a greyhound, which has been traumatic for all of us. Max is ok, but he bit me and it bloody hurt!!!!

Ken to the rescue!!

We spent last night just outside Leighton Buzzard at ‘The Globe’. Fantastic curry night, very cheap and very good curry. (I am not a lover of pub curry usually, but this was excellent). Today we went into Leighton Buzzard shopping and are staying here for the night. Not a lot going on here considering we are in the middle of a town.

Lovely pub grub here 'The Globe'

Lots of things cross your mind while moseying down the rivers and canals. When we left Peterborough the river was crystal clear, you could see all the fish and weeds right to the bottom. When I look at the water of the canals it looks just like soup!! Mind you I saw someone catch a really big fish in the ‘soup’ this morning, so it obviously doesn’t affect the wildlife.

The other thing I have noticed is just how damn loud the countryside is, what with the birds twittering, cows mooing and how even when you think you are in the middle of nowhere, you can hear TYRE NOISE!!!! Amazing.

Stoke Bruerne - Canal Village

Stoke Bruerne - Famous Canal Village

Mad Max and the Moo Cows

Cogenhoe just happened to be Max’s heaven, even when he did come face to face with COWS!! Thought he might try and scare them by fluffing up his tail, but they just looked at him a bit gone out, ah well cows are stupid anyway!!

Silly Cows!!

We all hit the Crow’s Nest club and had a really nice evening. The highlight being feeding the fish mini cheddars, which was a bit bizarre.

Thursday was boiling hot. We set off late morning for a leisurely cruise to Northampton for a nice rest and a bit of shopping. I fancied chips and mushy peas, but where the hell is a chip shop when you need one, certainly not in Northampton. Ended up with a McDonald’s, followed by a beer in ‘King Billy’s’. Ken sampled Betty Stogs (real ale!!) whilst listening to the loudest rock group we have ever heard in our lives. Still suffering with a bit of deafness!!

Friday morning was something else. Started off up the Northampton Arm of the Grand Union Canal at 06.58, are we mad one must think. No, just wanted to get a place at Stoke Bruerne before all the mooring spots were taken. It was a red hot day for 17 locks, was so pleased when we hit lock one at the top of the flight. Blisworth Tunnel was blissfully cool for half an hour. We moored with no problem at Stoke Bruerne and hit the pub that evening to sample the live Jazz and real ale – Ken was on ‘Boondoggle’ (I think that’s a fab name).

Was I glad to see this lock!!

As you can see there are 17 locks in the Rothersthorpe flight

Our lazy routine

We are staying here until Tuesday, so have settled into a very lazy, boozy, foody routine. Max is having a fantastic time romping around the towpath catching mice and being fussed by every passerby. In actual fact the towpath is quite a petting zoo. There are numerous dogs, Max and a couple of boats down there is a 67 year old tortoise, who has upstaged Max completely!!!!

Oh Dear - Max upstaged by a tortoise!!

Our plan is to move off on Tuesday and go down to Milton Keynes for some shopping and a taste of civilization.