The mooring above Sonning Lock was lovely, quiet and with a nice view. There weren’t a great number of options for walks with Macc, but he did like going into the river back by the bridge. This morning started cloudy again, and we set off at about 9. The next section of river is wide with trees both sides, so not a great deal to see.
As we passed the entrance to the Thames and Kennet Marina, we got a quick glimpse in — and saw lots of large boats in there.
Shortly afterwards, on the opposite side of the river, is the entrance to the Kennet and Avon Canal. We have lots and lots of time on this trip (especially now the upper Thames appears to be off the agenda) so we’d decided to take a little detour. We headed under the riot of bridges at the start of the canal.
This bit isn’t actually canal at all, it’s the River Kennet, and it’s still under the control of the Environment Agency rather than CRT at this point. The only lock of the day, Blake’s Lock, is an EA one and just like those on the upper Thames it has big wheels to raise and lower the paddles.
If you think some of the repairs to lock gates that CRT does are bodges, then the one the EA has implemented to a balance beam on this lock surpasses them all. This one is strapped up and has the addition of a little trolley to keep it off the ground. Fortunately we could get through the other gate without having to touch this one.
The EA control extends another 850 metres, according to the sign at the lock — and that covers all the rest of our journey here. At the junction for the Reading Gaol Loop we turned in and went under a low bridge.
When we told the people we shared locks with yesterday that we were planning to come round here, they said they used to moor here regularly but the area now seemed a bit unkempt. So when we saw rings alongside some new flats, just before the road bridge, we reversed up to investigate. However, when we were close enough to be able to read the signs, they said that mooring is only allowed between 7.30am and 7.30pm which is no good to us.
We went through the bridge and moored on the Chestnut Walk moorings. While parts have the wooden edge missing and some lengths are a bit weedy, there’s no litter about and relatively few people. It’s been a bit noisy because of works on some of the office buildings, but it seems fine to us. The other side of the fence is Chestnut Walk itself, a memorial to Oscar Wilde.
The moorings are owned by Reading Borough Council and the website says they cost £10 a night and are limited to 24 hours; logging on to the online payment, the charge is £9.50 for 24 hours or you can pay £19 for 48 hours, so clearly something has been lost between one website and the other.
Adrian headed into Reading to pick up some things from the Post Office and get some shopping at the town centre Sainsbury’s. I went a little later to have a look around, and recognised some of the buildings from when we had to come here to give evidence in court.
Right next to the moorings are the abbey ruins, which is actually quite a large complex of remains.
Beyond the ruins is Forbury Gardens, where I took Macc for a walk while Adrian went to meet a former colleague for coffee. There’s a massive lion, which is a monument to the soldiers of the Royal Berkshire Regiment who died in the Afghan campaign of 1779-80.
There’s also a Lego sculpture which is apparently part of the Reading Dino Trail. Lots of kids were coming to find it to tick it off a list in a leaflet.
It’s become sunny and warm as the day has gone on, and it looks as though we’ll get some hot weather again over the next couple of days.
2 miles, 1 lock. (43 miles, 17 locks)