Wealthy Ostentation / Wide Open Spaces

Our Weekend Cruising Diary (signal too slow for uploading photos)

Saturday - Windsor to Henley
The weather was dry and warm enough in the afternoon to take jumpers off and enjoy the sun on our skin. There were a lot of other boats around, so we were sharing the locks with several boats each time. All were manned, the lock keepers glad to see boats moving again.
We came past extremely large ostentatious properties beside the river, private houses looking more like hotels with immaculate gardens and large white cruisers moored at the waters edge. Passing through towns such as Maidenhead, Marlow and Cookham. A reminder of the wealth of our country, and so many of us compared to many in the world
21 miles, 8 locks


Sunday - Henley to Reading
A real change to the weather, grey and cold, we left the Henley Regatta course side after lunch and arrived at Reading about 6pm. Now we were passing more open countryside, again sharing the locks with day trippers and weekenders. At Reading we met up with family for the evening, lovely to see familiar faces and catch up.
9 miles, 4 locks


Monday - Reading to Wallingford
This morning we had a look around Reading, found a good deal for lunch and set off in the sunshine.  It was a lovely cruise with long gaps between locks and wide open spaces all round us. Not many other boats moving today, we came up the locks alone.
It was lovely to be out in the open air, the open space enjoying the sun and breeze on our faces. I feel we are the wealthy ones to be able to enjoy these wide open spaces.
15 miles, 4 locks

In The Presence Of Royalty

As we approached Windsor yesterday the Thames really did feel like the Royal River.

There are signs along the bank warning it is The Crown Estate, so no mooring, or else!

Under Victoria Bridge

With the Royal Coat of Arms

And then the Castle, yes She's at home, we'll call in later.

But just as we came to moor up, the flag was changed, bother we missed Her.

This morning, our view of the castle showed Her Majesty was back, well there was a bit of 'do' going on today, the armed forces were coming out to parade through the town in celebration of her Golden Jubilee. So we went to see.....

There was quite a crowd out lining the streets and we got to a space looking up the hill, don't know if we shall see much, I'll hold the camera high and hope for the best.

First of all the Royal Navy

Then the Marines

More of the Navy

Army (sorry don't know any more)

Guardsmen?

Scots Guards

And the Air Force

Sorry I don't know enough about the Armed Forces to be more specific, but the colour, the bands, the whole spectacle was great with the crowd cheering and waving their flags. All feeling glad to be British.

Then there was a lull before two Mounted Police came down the hill, followed by

The Queen herself with the Duke of Edinburgh.

The photo's not great, I'm sorry, but it really was them! There were so many others in front waving and cheering this was the best of many.

Then we made our way back to Tacet with our view over the castle for the next treat of the day, a flypast of various types of aircraft.

Helicopters in diamond formation

flying in 60 formation

in ER formation

and the Red Arrows at the end

A Right Royal Occasion

We've Got Awey!

This morning we said 'Goodbye' to the River Wey

                                and 'Hello' to the River Thames

at last.

On the way we spotted all types of waterside accomodation.







double decker



glass house

small, but perfectly formed

In mid-air

Lock house

We also saw families out on the water, ducklings, goslings, and cygnets

At Runnymede we walked across the meadow to the memorials. Runnymede is known as the Birthplace of Democracy as it was here the Magna Carta document was signed by King John in 1215.

We walked on American soil as we made our way up to the Kennedy Memorial, an acre of ground given by the Crown to America as a memorial to President J.F. Kennedy.

"Let every Nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend or oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty." - JFK Inagural Address

The Magna Carta Memorial to commemorate the importance of the constitutional document brought to King John to sign by the barons and archbishop of the day.  Much of its contents are still enshrined in our laws, customs and practice today. 

Then onto Windsor, more photos tomorrow.













Looking Back At The Wey

Yesterday we put a second undercoat on the roof of Tacet, and tidied away most of the tools and bits and bobs used for the painting process.  Being outside, although dry under the bridge, there were bits of fluff blowing around and sticking to the wet paint, we shall have to think about when and where we do the top coat. 
We shall go out onto the Thames tomorrow and head off towards Windsor, it will be so good to be on the move again.
But today there was an urgent need to get to the services up at Pyrford. The 3rd and last loo cassette was full, the water tank empty, absolutely empty-taps just gurgling!, and rubbish overflowing. It was a great relief to get going and deal with it all.  Then it was straight on with the washing machine, a pile of washing up to do and clean my teeth!

our mooring for the past week

Would never have thought that we could spend a week under a motorway, but actually it wasn't that bad, quieter than you might think and lots of people walking and cycling through the pathway.

So we are saying 'Goodbye' to the Wey some 3 weeks later than expected, here are a mixed bag of pictures as a reminder of our stay.

the sun didn't shine much, but the rape fields did

locking down with new friends on nb Gabriel

odd building by river, with blue plaque - John Donne (poet) lived here

Walsham flood gates with unusual paddles

paddle boat Jethro Tull, we shared locks on the K&A some years ago with this boat

of all the Wey boat names, this was my favourite

and an aahhh to finish with.



The Wey is such a pretty river and the navigation an ancient one, opened in 1653 for transporting goods to London, one of the first rivers to be made navigable. With the Basingstoke Canal and the Wey and Arun leading from it, it was a busy thoroughfare, now very peaceful, relaxing and pleasant. Though being a river, subject to strong stream flows after heavy rains as we have found out.

9 miles, 5 locks



Boys will be Boys

Another painting day, and the first coat of blue undercoat has been done, unfortunately although dry under the bridge, there was a bit of a breeze today blowing dust and plant bits onto our sticky paint. Grrrr. Tomorrow we shall have to get the sander out before the second coat can go on.

Over the past few days some boys have been busy digging and moving soil around under the bridge here making jumps for their BMX bikes.

Today, a few more turned up, (rather early in the afternoon for a school day, I thought!), and were making some good jumps.

Some bigger boys(!) drove up in their work van, set up their extending ladders and setting about their creative handiwork........

They were certainly not secretive about it, the van was loudly playing rap music and plenty of people use the footpath through here. They had done ladder training too, as one stood at the bottom, while t'other worked at the top.

Not sure if this a finished masterpiece or work in progress.

The news on the Thames is the red boards are almost all down, now on yellow - stream decreasing. So we shall soon be able to be on the move again.







In Our Prime

It was raining behind us, raining in front of us, but we were dry in our painting tunnel under the M25. So it was out with the brushes and paint pots, and  we got on with the job of painting the roof.

1st coat of primer on the way,

Ian finishing off the 1st coat, I'd done the rest!

2nd coat of primer almost finished.

The gunwale (gunnell) stripped and ready to be primed too.

The back deck stripped down, we're getting there.