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!!