Lechlade (River Thames) – Saturday 24th August
A sad day today as the family cat, Yoyo, went over the rainbow bridge. She was 20 and started off life as my cat, then she moved in with my daughter, Victoria. She then came back to us, then back to Victoria, back to us once more and she finally ended her days with Victoria and James in their own house. She had a good life and certainly lived up to her name, Yoyo! She will be sorely missed but her quality of life had deteriorated over the last few weeks and Victoria made the decision to send her on her way to catch up with Muffin in animal heaven. Victoria found a vet who went to the house which was great as Yoyo detested the vets.
This is a little video that Victoria made of Yoyo and Muffin
a few years ago.
On a happier note, today was Rio’s 5 month birthday!
In the morning there was a lot of kerfuffle coming from the other side of the bridge. Suddenly there was a bang and a whole load of canoes and kayaks came through, followed by blue and pink smoke! Later we found that it was the first running of the Thames 200 Ultra. The race is from Lechlade to Teddington Lock, a distance of 200kms. Paddlers can race non-stop straight through or complete the course in a team, changing crew at a checkpoint.
It rained all morning then cleared up at lunchtime. Richard and I walked up stream to the Roundhouse which is at the junction of the Thames and Severn Canal. There are five roundhouses which were the homes of the lengthsmen who looked after the canal. The building is Grade II listed.
We got back to the boat just before the rain came and it was
then a very showery afternoon before the sun came out and it was a pleasant
evening sitting on the meadow with Steve and Tracey.
Lechlade Church is lit up at night.
Shifford Lock (River Thames) – Sunday 25th August
A lovely bright morning and our time in Lechlade was up. We headed off. It was quite windy at times which caused a few problems round the bends. The upper Thames is very windy (that’s windy not windy!) so when you put the wind and the winds together, it can be problematic.
It was Bank Holiday Sunday but the river was very quiet. We saw a few motor cruisers but no narrow boats.
All along the Thames are WWII pillboxes. These were part of the 'General Headquarters (GHQ) red line' designed to delay German invasion heading up from the south coast. This use of the River Thames as a natural defence line against invasion was recognised by King Alfred over a thousand years ago during the 9th century.
We kept looking for somewhere to moor. We passed a few places where we have moored
in the past but the reeds have grown up so much that the banks are
unrecognisable and inaccessible. Finally
we got to Shifford Lock where there is a lock mooring in the weir stream. We had to breast up but we are quite used to
that now. It’s a lovely spot with the
lock garden just behind where we were moored.
Tracey and I plus the dogs sat out on the pontoon. Rio was told to go on his bed when he really wanted to play with Ted. This was his answer to the problem!!
Rio spent the whole day on the roof, snuggled into his fluffy donut bed. I haven’t been too sure if he was really enjoying it but today he was very excited when he saw me pick up his bed to put on the roof.
The other day I mentioned Old Nan’s Bridge. I was wrong! It is, in fact, Bloomer’s Hole Bridge which was installed in 2000 to carry the Thames Path across the Thames. It is built of steel encased in wood to make it look like a timber structure.
13 miles
5 locks
Bablock Hythe (River Thames) – Monday 26th August
We only had two locks to do today. Shifford and Northmoor. It was a bit chilly but certainly warmer than it has been.
We went under New Bridge which is one of the two oldest surviving bridges on the Thames, part Grade I and part Grade II* listed. The bridge dates from the 13th century and is built of Taynton stone in the same way as Radcot Bridge, which is slightly older. They were built by monks on the orders of King John in order to improve communications between the wool towns in the south of England and the Cotswold farms, and this was named "New Bridge" as it was the youngest out of the three bridges built at the time (the third being the Lechlade bridge, replaced in the 19th century). It was originally much longer than it is now, with 51 arches and being 664 metres long, compared with the current 12 arches.
Our goal today was Bablock Hythe. It always used to be a very popular place but when we arrived about 12.30pm there was no one else there. Two narrow boats joined us later on though. The mooring at Bablock is on a huge field, I took Rio ashore and he just ran and ran, he was so excited. We sat out in the afternoon and Rio and Ted did their game of chase a couple of times, they are so funny. Apparently they do it on OtM every morning! Rio's eyebrows make him look so angry!
There used to be a ferry across the river at Bablock dating
back to the the 13th century. The hand-propelled cable ferry was said to be the
first along the Thames and was still in use for cars and other road vehicles up
until 1959.
6 miles
2 locks
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