Our last day on the River Wey, which has been a thoroughly enjoyable river. We had a bit of a scare with Macc’s paw yesterday evening though. While going for a paddle, he yelped and held a front paw up and was then limping. We took him back to the boat and used some of the ludicrously expensive shampoo the vet sold us when he was biting his feet at 9 weeks old; we couldn’t find a thorn or cut or anything, so to distract him from licking it we gave him a cheese bone to chew. Since then he’s forgotten all about it and is walking on it fine.
This morning we were up at a reasonable time, and Adrian made a quick visit to the Co-op for some fresh salad stuff. New Haw Lock needed resetting as a boat had gone down before we were up.
Coxes Lock was nearly full. I suspect the people who live in the flats in the old mill close the bottom gates so they don’t have to step over the balance beams to go over the bridge, and the top gates were leaking like anything.
As we were going down, a couple of National Trust guys with oil cans arrived to do the paddle gear. One of them reckoned there was probably a branch on the cill, meaning the gates weren’t sealing properly. As we left they were refilling the lock to investigate. Weybridge Town Lock also needed refilling. It’s at a very odd angle and is almost as difficult to get into from the top as it is from below. And on leaving, there’s a tricky right-angle turn.
When we reached Thames Lock, the cruiser that passed us first thing was waiting there. The NT put in a restriction a few days ago when the pound was well down, saying there would be no single-boat lockings to save water. The problem was that there aren’t that many boats around, and the cruiser and we wouldn’t fit together: they were too wide and we were too long. The lock keeper, who’s the main one who was on holiday when the pound drained, was somewhat in despair and resolved to phone the navigation manager. She returned a few minutes later to say the restriction had been lifted, and the cruiser could go down. They’d been waiting a good couple of hours.
Then it was our turn to go down, and of course when we were about a quarter of the way down a boat appeared round the corner that we could have shared with. We were soon off the Wey and onto the Thames, and turned left to wait for Shepperton Lock. We ended us sharing it with two plastic boats.
I told the volunteer lock keeper that we needed a licence, and he went and got the staff lockie to sort it out. We’ve bought a month, as it’s far better value than going week by week. We’ve bought moored up just round the corner outside the Thames Court pub. There are a few mooring places along the next stretch, but of course you never know whether the ones ahead are free.
We’ve moored here before, and always like the very stylish Huf house on the other side of the river.
While we were having lunch, the Magna Carta hotel boat left its moorings in the weir stream and turned towards the lock.
There have been a few boats passing, including one towing a chair on a platform for some reason.
While it felt pretty cool this morning it’s really warmed up this afternoon as we don’t have any shade here. It’s still not hot like it was last week.
3 miles, 5 locks. (75 miles, 44 locks)