I had a really good night’s sleep than goodness after the last few
nights. I don’t think I woke up once!
 |
| Shepperton Lock |
We left Thames Court and into Shepperton Lock. The EA ran a best kept lock competition for
two years in 2011 and 2012 and Steve Newman won it both times – they haven’t
run it since!! Victoria went to school
with Steve’s youngest son, Ross, and that was 25 years ago so I don’t know how
long he has been there for. Steve’s wife
was the first person to open a café at a lock and there were all sorts of
ructions but she stuck it out and now it seems strange not to find one at a
lock.
 |
| Walton Bridge |
We went under the new bridge at Walton and what a lovely bridge it is
too. When I lived at Shepperton there
was the old stone bridge which was used by pedestrians and a Bailey bridge for
cars. There were always queues in the
rush hour and was a real bottle neck. I
hope the new bridge has solved that problem.
They are also building a café at the bridge which should be nice – there
was always a caravan or similar there but a proper structure will be very
popular, I’m sure.
We had hoped to call in at Walton Marina to go the chandlery but there
was no mooring whatsoever – their loss!!
I have managed to get a mooring for 3 nights at Constables Boatyard in
Hampton while we visit Richard’s step-daughters and their off-spring. Constables is owned by friends of Penny and
Jim who I met whilst motor cruising with P & J. Angie and Keith were on many of the
Chichester Yacht Club cruises and also at social functions and Angie and I have
been Facebook friends for some time.
Thank you so much Angie, Keith and James – their son who now runs the
boatyard.
 |
| Constables Boatyard |
We had a lovely afternoon with Sophie, Ollie (two of Richard’s step
daughters), Sophie’s youngest Rex, Ollie’s son Orlando and Ollie’s husband
Charlie. It was decided that a toddler
and a crawler weren’t really conducive with a narrowboat in a boatyard so we
all went to Ollie’s. We had a lovely
afternoon and the two little boys are just scrumptious!
 |
| Rex and Orlando |
We picked up our car from Fay’s (R’s other step daughter) so we are now
mobile until we leave on Saturday. We
made good use it and took a quick trip to Homebase and then picked up a
take-away.
6.05 miles
2 locks
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