Oldies On Tour

We stopped overnight under reading bridge; well it was free, and it was surprisingly quiet for a public thoroughfare!!! Today we headed west buying Diesel along the way and enjoying the sights as we meandered along the Thames on this glorious sunny day; wow we have been so lucky with the weather. Washing was a priority and the first launderette we could find was in Pangbourne, so this was our

Lovely village

destination. The weather now changed and the rain came down but we arrived and moored alongside a field about ¼ mile from the town. We found the Launderette then wandered around the town until the washing was ready. Pangbourne has also become a centre for high-end sports cars with a Lamborghini and Aston Martin dealership in the town.  We stayed overnight listening to the patter of the rain.

Next morning we headed off again, Wallingford was our target for

No problems mooring this time

tonight. We arrived early afternoon and moored just past the Pub where we had had a meal with Andrew a couple of years ago whilst travelling the Thames in Dave and Leisha’s boat, “Foggy’s Notion”. It was encouraging to note, Wallingford council welcomed boaters, (unlike some places we’ve to) and set aside visitor moorings, though for a fee of course!

Pretty cottages near our mooring

Wallingford again has a history that surprised me. Firstly it became an important Thames crossing point and was fortified back in early Saxon times, and particularly by Alfred the Great, to protect Wessex from the Vikings. There are also the remains of the castle built by the Normans;

Ye olde castle

this castle was the also last stronghold of the Empress Matilda against her Cousin Stephen, later “King Stephen” (1135 – 1154), this time in

Town Hall

History is sometimes known as the first English Civil war. Wallingford was also important during the “Civil War“; it was the royalists’ last stronghold in Berkshire (nowadays Oxfordshire) and after a 65-day siege they abandoned the town and Cromwell set about destroying the castle; much of the stone was used to build the clock tower of St. Mary-

St. Mary -Le-More church

le-More, the historic church in Wallingford.

After securing our overnight mooring spot we wandered around this very quaint and pretty historical town, though it wasn’t raining, it was very overcast and cold. Next morning Christine dashed over to Waitrose before we left and headed towards our next stop, Abingdon.

We had an uneventful run up to Abingdon, moored up alongside the town park but as it was raining stayed on board. We had “done” Abingdon on our previous travels. Around 2100hrs the rain suddenly increased and this continued well into the night, the sound was amplified as it hit the roof and the thunder and lightening felt as if it was just above us. Here we are in steel box with an aerial poking up from the roof, perfect conditions for a strike!!!!! Eventually we got off to sleep wondering what everything will be like in the morning.

25/5 – 28/5/2018

We decided that as we had been to Henley-on-Thames before, and that the Grand Prix was on television this week end, we wanted to find somewhere we could moor up, do nothing for a couple of days, and enjoy the F1, so we left Henley and travelled onto Sonning. We had

Transporting the canoes

met a few canoeist on route transporting all their various boats, and whilst we were in Sonning lock we found out that there was to be a Regatta for the children on Saturday, so decision made, we are stopping.
The weather was fine, we walked all around the village expecting to find some shops, but nothing, we have very little food, no milk etc.,but with pubs and a bistro in the village I am sure we will manage. We contacted Trevor and Jill, hoping to catch up with them, as Jill lives in this lovely village, but they were in Lymington. We stopped at the Bull, and had a couple of drinks, before we returned to the boat, just in time, the heavens opened and another thunderstorm and torrential rain.

Think they are enjoying themselves

Slept really well on our mooring, and awoke to more rain, what a

The children enjoying the races

shame, for the Regatta, but by the time it started the sun was out, and the fun on the water started. We watched the F1 qualifications and then caught the ferry to the Regatta, they had lots of stalls, local beers, local pies, and so many children enjoying themselves, it was lovely to watch, we had a great time, went to catch the ferry but it had broken down, so we went and had

Come on you Reds!

another pint, they said it would be fixed by 5.30pm, we asked the Thames Rescue, if we could have a lift, and he kindly dropped us at the boat, which was just as well, as they couldn’t fix it.
On Sunday, we had breakfast at the Coppa restaurant, the food was lovely, but the service was shocking, whilst we were waiting Jill came in, we had another coffee, and caught up with all the news, bless her she offered to get us some milk and eggs and call in later, which she did, plus she bought us some fresh strawberries, very tasty.
The village apparently do a scarecrow weekend, and this was the

Sonning Church goes back to 909AD

weekend, the locals open their gardens, and dress up scarecrows, all the children can go round and see them, the village certainly has a really good ambiance we thoroughly enjoyed our time here. We watched the F1, which was not that exciting, then in the evening we went back to the Bull, and had a really lovely evening

The Bull, dates back to 16th century timber framed building. Owned by the church!

meal, what a lovely place this is, not surprising that George Clooney, and Uri  Geller live her.
In the morning we went back to Shiplake lock, to empty the looe, get rid of the rubbish, it added five miles on our trip, but worth it, we then made our way to Reading and stopped the night, on route, we found a TESCO Extra on the river, to enable us to provision the boat.

23/5/2018

We wanted to stop in Bourne End, just because Liz lived there, I wanted to go back to the pub that we frequented whilst she was alive, when we arrived at the jetty, it was very chaotic with boats moored badly, we arrived at the same time as another boat, and the way everyone was parked neither of us would get in, but after some shuffling around, we were all tied up, ready for the pub.

Cows grazing in water, so peaceful

It was another beautiful day, so we strolled along the country road, after crossing the local railway line, and then found a table outside, Jane and I enjoyed a cider, whilst Geoff had a pint of the local beer, we all had bacon and mozzarella rolls, which were delicious, a couple more drinks before back to the boat and onto Marlow.

We couldn’t berth in our normal place, so found one further down, the good news was it was free, we had showers and headed for town, ready for a meal at Zizzi’s (Jane’s treat)not sure why she did, as we were forever nagging at her to either stop smoking, or get out of our way, bless her! I have so enjoyed seeing her.

After a lovely meal, we strolled home, a couple of drinks, before bed, what a lovely day.

24/5/2018

Marlow, and it’s been raining, the first time, since Jane has been aboard, we have been so lucky, Jane is catching the 11.00am train, bit of a drag to get back to Petersfield, she has three changes! That’s the only downside to joining us on the boat, you never know where we are going to end up, still we found the local station, a tiny two carriage train, to go to Maidstone, then onto Reading, and finally Petersfield, sorry mate!
We walked around the town looking for odds and ends, and buying a few groceries, to keep us going.
Back to the boat, and onto Henley, when we arrived, we found they are

Can’t believe the number of babies

preparing for the Henley Regatta, bit early we thought it doesn’t start till July, but apparently it has become so popular it takes two months to set up. We struggled to find a place to moor, so we went to the bridge, and then turned back to go further out. We ended up on a bank, away from Henley, it started to thunder and lightning, pour with rain, so we decided just to stay put, and worry about it the morning. We couldn’t get any television, so we played cards all night, tomorrow is another day.

Whilst we were wandering around Brentford I noticed a historical plaque in the lock area and after reading it I was surprised what has taken place in Brentford in the past.

Brentford has been a familiar area to the west of London to most of us, and probably this is an area few of us have visited other than passing through, as indeed have I, yet unbelievably this place has a formable history.

The archaeological objects found in this area go back to the Bronze Age, long before London was started. Brentford being the confluence of the rivers Brent and Thames and sufficiently up stream was shallow enough for people to walk across. This was also the place where Julius Caesar and his army battled a Celtic Chief by the name of Cassivellaunus at the start of the roman conquest, 54BC. It didn’t end there; in 1012 Edmond Ironside (King of England) defeated the Danes and it still doesn’t end there, in 1642, another “Battle of Brentford” was fought, this time between the Royalists and the Roundheads and the result of this defeat ensured Royalists never got back into London. Probably the last and significant point of interest was the starting of the Grand Union Canal, here in Brentford.

The beauty of travelling at a steady pace of around 3 miles per hour is you have time to register parts of England you would normally just bypass, our history, our heritage, and the beautiful countryside.

Leaving Teddington after a comfortable night we headed west. We certainly weren’t in any hurry and our target was to reach Hampton Court; this is where we had agreed to meet Christine’s friend, Jane. We were very lucky to get a mooring alongside Hampton Court, a 10-minute walk from the Station.

Beautiful buildings

The old village (again bypassed) was a very quaint narrow street, lined with antique shops and restaurants; naturally we couldn’t let the moment pass so enjoyed a super leisurely lunch at Zizzi’s.

Next Day Jane arrived and the afternoon was taken up by a visit to Hampton Court Palace; the Palace Henry 8th confiscated from

Entrance to Hampton Court, we were moored very close

Cardinal Wolsey. All of us had visited the palace in years gone by so decided it was time we re-visited it. We all had a wonderful afternoon, I enjoyed the history and the girls enjoyed the ambience and the gardens.

Jane and I went in the Maze, which was fun to try and get out.

We were away at a leisurely hour the following morning heading for Windsor; we had decided that by Monday the crowd would have gone and we would be able to moor by the bridge, as we did the last time we were there.

Windsor Castle, such a lovely place

Yes, we were lucky, our space was waiting and we arrived in time for us to visit the Castle and grounds. Fortunately the queue wasn’t too long to get tickets so joined it. Ha Ha, once inside the queue snaked around the big “room” in the time old tradition until we paid for our tickets, great, but no, now we queued to go through security, very similar to an airport, everything in a tray, belts off, but this time, hands in the air!!!!!

St. George’s Chapel, where the wedding took place two days ago

About an hour later we were in, all we now had to do was collect our audio guides and we were off, well, once we managed to sort the audio guides out that is.   We walked in the right direction to find the first number, which we did but couldn’t get the audios to work so we kept walking and eventually found a castle worker driving a golf cart full of returned audio sets, so

Round Tower at Windsor

we stopped her. She agreed mine didn’t work and replaced it, Christine couldn’t get the a picture on her and the reason was it was pre-set for a blind person and Jane, well I’m afraid to say was operator error. Now we were off, and our priority was to visit St. Georges Chapel; the girls wanted to see all the flowers, only to be disappointed, they had been removed and when we enquired, were told they had been removed and distributed to hospices and the like, at this point all was satisfied.

Formal gardens at Hampton Court

Visiting the castle, and in particular St. Georges Chapel 2 days after Prince Harry’s wedding to Meghan Markel was good, as we could relate to the television pictures.

Again, I was more interested in the 2000-year history of the castle but this all fell upon deaf ears, as far as the girls were concerned!!!

The following day we continued the tourist bit but before this,

Changing of the guard at Windsor

Christine and Jane walked across the pedestrian bridge into Eton, I think there was a bit of voyeurism, they wanted to see the boys dressed in their school uniforms, i.e. their morning suits. Back to the boat and we all trooped up the hill to get a good spot outside the Castle main entrance to watch the troops

Marching Band, so smart

marching up the street with the band, and then into the castle for the changing of the guard ceremony.

Back to “Meg” heading up the Thames passing many very expensive riverside pads until we arrived at “Bray Lock”; in we went, no problem, well not with us. The hydraulic pipe controlling the lower lock gates split and the gates couldn’t be closed and after a ‘phone call by the lock keeper to their control centre, we were informed it would be a couple of hours before an engineer arrived to replace the hydraulic pipe, oh dear, so we broke out the wine bottle.

The engineer did a magnificent job and we were on our way well under the two hours forecast, this was good but meant we had to rush our wine!!!! Now time was marching on so stopped just before Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s magnificent “Maidenhead railway bridge”. This is the bridge that was predicted to fall down when the first train rolled over it in 1839. The reason for this gloomy forecast was the

Maidenhead Railway Bridge

construction was revolutionary; the spans were far too wide and flat for traditional engineers of the day. Here we are, 179-years later moored just by it watching today’s trains run over it and it is as solid now as it was then.

We spent a quiet evening waiting for a knock on the roof asking for the mooring fees mentioned on a sign on the bank, but no one turned up and when we left the following morning heading for Marlow, still no one had come, a bonus to us!!!

Tuesday 8^th May

 One of nice things about being on these canals is, “no rush”; start when you want, finish when you want, mooring doesn’t appear to be an issue, virtually anywhere along the towpaths.   Today was no exception, tea in bed with the breakfast news, a little nourishment to kick the day off, all very leisurely.

As we approached the first lock, the disused Buckingham Branch canal went off to our right and all we could see were several narrow boats moored up there, but for how far, we know not. There was also a sign asking for volunteers and funds for the restoration trust; this trust has been formed to bring this canal back into use.

A family of ducks so cute!

Prior to our first and only lock today, we stopped to discharge you-know-what at the designated building, cruised into the lock, dropped down and that was it, we just

A heron, not worried about us at all.

cruised along admiring the local countryside, seeing a number of “Mrs Ducks” with her babies, and herons waiting to pounce.

Apart from the unusual gothic bridge we went under yesterday, the other remarkable engineering feet here is the “Cosgrove Aqueduct”, a cast iron trough went over the river “Great Ouse’, 40ft below and built in 1811. Before this engineering solution came into being, there were 9

The Iron Trunk over the Gt.Ouse.

locks taking the canal down to the river then bringing it back up.

Christine had identified a large Tesco store at Wolverton, and Google maps said it was fairly near the canal, so that’s where we headed for.   Three miles later we arrived, this re-generated area had new apartments and a very splendid canal side with mooring rings embedded to ensure passing boats

Meg was parked, whilst we went to Tesco.

stopped.

Walking through this regenerated area we were reminded of Wolverton’s heritage, the railways. In 1836 Wolverton was chosen as the site for the locomotive build and repair centre as it was the

Old picture of the locomotive factory

midpoint of the London and Birmingham Railway. Building Engines ceased in 1863 but the area still continued to build railway Carriages, including the Royal Trains. Manufacturing and maintenance continued until 2013, when the last remaining part of the business went into

Murals painted along the tow path, they were quite spectacular

liquidation.

Back on board and off we went, meandering through the countryside, loving every minute of it.

We did have one issue yesterday; the shiny new washing machine didn’t seem to work correctly. It lets water in OK but doesn’t pump out; oh dear, just our luck and being a bank holiday we couldn’t contact anyone; still we kept going south!!!!   Today we made contact and arranged for someone to come out tomorrow. We moored near a bridge with road access, sent the bridge number through and now we wait.

Another lovely evening on the canal, let’s hope tomorrow is as nice as today.