Having been behind schedule, then on schedule, today we’ve got ahead of schedule. There was activity early on the Goring moorings, with a narrowboat and the big Dutch barge in front of us heading up to the lock landing at 8am. Goodness knows why, because the lock doesn’t open until 9.30. It meant our departure was easier though, because we now had room to just swing round and head downstream, at about 8.30.
The sun was in my eyes quite a bit, so it was nice to have a few second relief when going under the Gatehampton Railway Bridge.
A cruiser which had also set off from Goring had already overtaken a hire boat, and then came past us just as I sneezed three times!
Whitchurch was on self service, and we both went in and down. There were loads of spaces at Pangbourne Meadow, had we needed one. Going this way we got a view of Hardwick House, which we didn’t spot at all going the other way.
Mapledurham Lock was staffed, and the cruiser and us went down together. Below this lock you get a glimpse of Mapledurham House and its neighbouring church.
As we approached Reading, there were huge campsites on the Oxfordshire side of the river, and I realised after a while that these were for the Reading Festival. There were hundreds of tents still pitched, which probably means they’ve all been abandoned given the festival finished on Sunday.
Just round the corner was the very substantial temporary bridge over the river, linking the campsites to the festival site. It’s a work of art compared with the one they put up for the Crick Show!
The Festival site itself is also vast, stretching all down the river almost to the bridge. We past one of the entrances, with miles of queueing lines.
We went down Caversham Lock with another narrowboat, and then planned to stop at the Tesco moorings for some shopping. However, there were no spaces at all, so we had a rethink. We’d go the short distance to Sonning (which had been our planned night stop), stop to give Macc a break, have some lunch, and carry on. There was loads of space on the Sonning moorings, and we were there before 12 so we’d made good progress. I took Macc for a walk and then we had lunch, and set off again at 12.45, before the lock keeper went on his lunch break. There was a boat coming up, then us to go down, and then another arrived to go up. Below the lock, Sonning Bridge has only one navigation arch so takes a bit of care. I was glad we met a big Dutch barge a little further on rather than at the bridge.
Shiplake Lock was on self service, and boats were just entering to go up. Adrian went to press the buttons, and helped pack three boats into the lock.
We went down alone, but at least a boat arrived to go up so we could leave the gates open. We went through Shiplake and Wargrave and on to Marsh Lock — where the sign said self service, but what appeared to be the lock keeper and his wife were doing some gardening and were doing bits and pieces of lock keeping. This seems to us to be the worst of all worlds, because people just get confused. There was a little boat sitting in the lock, which was full, but apparently didn’t realise they needed to open the gates themselves, because someone had pressed the other buttons for them. Once down, we found loads of space on the meadow moorings at Henley, although it was about the third one we tried where we could get reasonably in to the side. It was about 3.15 when we were secure, so another long day. The other good news is that there’s another Tesco not far across the meadows, so we can do some shopping after all.
Also today, and update to the closure of the South Oxford came through, it’s staying closed with a review at the start of October, so we’ve made the right decision to get moving even if it’s the long way round.
19 miles, 6 locks, £15 mooring fee. (46 miles, 17 locks, £15)