We left our mooring about 9.30am and cruised down to Tyle Mill
Lock. The lock is followed very shortly
by an electric swing gate which needs to be opened before leaving the
lock. I forgave my feeling of power (I
usually do the electric swing bridges!) and let Richard do the lock and
bridge. We were going to stop and empty
the loo at the services but I noticed that the “Geriatrics” were moored
opposite (on private moorings) and were about to leave. The loo could wait! Richard realised and ran back to the boat and
we pulled out in front of them – we just didn’t want to get stuck behind them
again. When we got to the next lock,
Sulhamstead, there was a boat already in it waiting for us. It was the historic working boat Dover who
had featured in the TV programmes ‘Narrow Boat’ & ‘Narrow Boat Afloat’, in
which Alan Herd took Dover, then a rusting hull, and refitted her out. I had a brief chat to the owner who has had
her for about a year. He said that the
original fit out had been pretty poor and she had since been re-fitted. Also when sponsors got involved with the
programme lots of electronics and fancy electrics had been put on and that the
wiring was a nightmare – all that and the washing machine won’t work!!
Dover pulled over just before Sheffield lock where we paired up with
Mrs. Nippy with Rosie and James (she called him James too!). It was then some white water rafting down the
fastest part of the River Kennet taking in Garston and Burghfield Locks - thank
goodness they are in lock cuts as I doubt if we would have been able to
stop. The Thames was still on red boards
between Caversham and Sonning so we decided to stop at the Cunning Man for
lunch.
The Cunning Man is a Vintage Inn and after our experience at The Trout
at Godstow last year I didn’t hold out much hope. We both chose the roast beef at £11.50
each! Well the best thing I can say
about it is that Muffin enjoyed the meat
We were just mulling over whether or not to risk a dessert when I looked
up and saw a man walking down the path who looked just like Doug from NB Chance
– hang on it was Doug and following him was James!! I called out and they came over. Doug had seen my Facebook check-in saying
that we were at the Cunning Man and as they were on their home from Lechlade
they thought they would come and surprise us – and surprise us they did!! We had a lovely couple of hours sitting in
the sunshine chatting and sipping cocktails – well not really the men were on
pints and I hit the cider! They came
back to Mary H for a coffee before heading back to the south coast. Thank you so much guys for going out of your
way to come and see us :-)
After Doug and James left we decided to head a bit further towards
Reading and stopped just before Fobney Lock.
It was a lovely evening and as I hadn’t got my 5000 steps in we went for
a walk buying a bottle of elderflower cordial from NB Fenakapan (a cider and
wine boat). We are moored in the lock
cut so we went to have a look at the weir and were amazed at the amount of
water going, well not over but into it.
I’ve never seen a weir like this before.
5.33 miles
6 locks
3 swing bridges
No comments:
Post a Comment