The access to the park made the Egham towpath moorings great for Macc. There were very few people using the park when I took him out yesterday evening.
What’s more, there wasn’t a soul there when we went again this morning. Today dawned very bright and still.
We set off about 8.30 passing the Magna Carta monuments and then crossing from Surrey into Berkshire. We were under the approaches to the two Heathrow runways. This was the BA A380 from Boston.
There are quite a few little islands, and I particularly liked this house on the end of one of them.
We got to Old Windsor Lock at about 9, and it was still on self service. Adrian went to press the buttons, while I kept the boat away from the lock landing. There’s a terrible overhang of both wood and concrete, and with the river a bit low at the moment our gunwales would have been way underneath, putting our cabin sides at risk of damage. Two other boats arrived behind us, rather unexpectedly as we appeared to have been on our own all morning.
The lock keeper turned up in the middle of the process and Adrian asked him if he wanted to take over. He said no, he wasn’t on duty yet — and prioritised getting out his hosepipe and pump to water the gardens. He did at least say he’d close the gates after us so Adrian could get back on board. Above the lock is a cut which takes off a huge bend in the river, and the. The grounds of Windsor Castle have loads of “Crown Estate — no mooring or landing” signs; the section starts at Albert Bridge and ends at Victoria Bridge, which has clearly had work at some time as it’s really rather disappointing in comparison.
We had to wait a couple of minutes at Romney Lock for a boat to come down, and then we all piled in. This lock fills from the side, and you can see the swirling of the water all the way along. It means the ropes are a bit harder to hold on to.
It’s then just a short run to Windsor, where we were hoping for a space on Baths Island. The one right at the end was free, so we grabbed it. All afternoon the river has been busy with everything from the little yellow motor boats for hire, to big trip boats — often at the same time.
I made a couple of trips to Waitrose — one for shopping and then to replenish the worryingly low wine stocks, as I’d spotted they had some good offers on. Then after lunch my former colleague, Rebecca, came to see us; she lives in Maidenhead, so it’s not far. She actually left the BBC before I did, and it was really good to see her. Even though she comes to Windsor a lot, she didn’t know Baths Island was here, and was pretty impressed by the view from the side hatch.
All afternoon, CRT emails about lock restrictions and closures because of water shortages have been coming in, so we’re wondering what to do. Unless August turns out to be rather wet, we’re doubtful we’ll get to Birmingham in September as planned, so we’ll keep things under review.
7 miles, 2 locks. (14 miles, 5 locks)