We were late waking up again which was a nuisance as once again we were
on a mission!! We left our lovely
mooring and moved to the lock. As we
turned to go in I saw a wide beam coming up river – it was Still Rockin. We shared the lock with them – it was a
pretty tight squeeze but at least we could get two boats in. Carol said that at Temple Lock there was only
room for them and that No Problem was following on. We both needed the services so pulled over
and had a quick chat before we roared off up the river!
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| Harleyford Manor |
I was reading No Problem’s blog this morning and Sue had written about
our brief chat yesterday “Linda and Richard came by at lunch time in motorway
mode to make it a couple of locks up to meet friends.” Love it Sue - that’s
just how I feel!!
 |
| Temple Island |
After Hambledon Lock we passed Temple Island and its elegant ornamental
folly temple designed by the 18th century English architect James Wyatt and
constructed in 1771. It was designed as a fishing lodge for nearby Fawley
Court. In December 1987 Henley Regatta
were able to purchase a 999 year lease of the island and the temple. Following
the purchase, the Stewards of the Regatta undertook restoration works to the
island and the temple.
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| The Angel on the Bridge in Henley |
The house on the island in Henley that I mentioned back in July on our
way down the river is still for sale – with two agents now thought I can’t find
it on Rightmove
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| The Little Green Boat |
Shiplake and Sonning Locks, lunch on the hoof and finally we saw the
moorings at Tesco in Reading – phew! We
moored up and shortly after a little green boat came out of the K & A and
there was Daisy Chain with Steve and Diane on board :-) They were the whole point of our “motorway”
dash up the Thames as we will be cruising with them up to Lechlade and back to
Newbury before finishing for the winter.
77 miles and 21 locks in 5 days which included two evenings of
socialising – can we PLEASE slow down now!!
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| Black swan family |
Diane and I went to Tesco to stock up and then set off up to Thames
Promenade in Reading. We came across two
black swans with their cygnet.
Apparently black swans don’t breed very well in the wild – well these
two certainly have though it is very late in the season.
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| The view from our mooring |
We arrived in lovely late afternoon sunshine and sat out on the grass
till about 8pm when it became really too chilly to do so! Opposite our mooring is this lovely house
with a cupola – look it up if you don’t know what one is!!
16.50 miles
6 locks
Pedant alert ! "The Angel in Henley" is in fact The Angel on the Bridge, as over the bridge on the Berkshire side (about 200 yards) is another pub called The Little Angel, the "on the bridge" & "Little" are used to distinguish between the two. ;- )
ReplyDeleteHi Alf. Thanks for the correction - all done now!
ReplyDelete