Tuesday 27th July

We wanted to get away early (well early for us) this morning as they were threatening rain later. However we had drizzle showers during the morning and a fine afternoon! We motored for about four hours and it seemed to be a series of swing bridges and locks. We were also following two boats which meant what all the locks were against us. We passed through Aldermaston which is where my narrowboating all started. Penny and Jim had their boat, Cecilia, built there during the winter of 2007 and I often joined them at Reading Marine to watch the build progress. However Reading Marine has now gone into liquidation and it did look a sorry sight and was rather depressing. The A340 runs through Aldermaston and I took great delight in stopping all the traffic to raise the lift bridge – oh what power!! The next swing bridge and lock is at Woolhampton where it is all rather complicated with very little room between the bridge and the lock, which is hidden round a corner and there are rivers running into the channel just before the lock. I let Richard drive and I did the hard work this time! We stopped just above the lock for lunch and the rest of the day. There is a very nice pub at Woolhampton called the Rowbarge so we couldn’t resist a visit and a meal.