Why is this river so narrow?

Monday 24^th October to Thursday 27^th October 2016

We are still pretty much ahead of the time to make it past the stoppage on the Napton flight in early November so we decided that a day or two in Oxford would be worthwhile and allow us to see a few things that we still had not done.

There was also the matter of re-stocking the pantry and fridge.

 

Spotted this litlle place coming up towards Oxford - make a nice weekender

One place that we had never visited in any of the many times that we have been to Oxford was the Ashmolean Museum, which has a fine reputation, but as we found out on Monday, it is closed and only open for business Tuesday to Sunday, so we headed off to the covered market to seek out The Pieminister for lunch.

This establishment has been here for a few years and with a great reputation for great pies, as the name suggests.

mmmm - The Pieminister

So we had lunch there and also got a bit of shopping done for ourselves and for Diane’s mum, who had asked us to source a book for her.

We could wait for Tuesday to re-assault the Ashmolean.

And so it came to be; after getting my work done (well most of it!) we launched ourselves from the boat – by this time we had come off the Thames and were moored in Jericho opposite the new waterside development.

We were a bit “surprised” at how narrow these other little “rivers” are when you do leave the Thames and there are plenty of boats close by.

Standing right opposite another Oxford institution, the Randolph, the Ashmolean has gone through a bit of refurbishment, which is easy to see.

You could imagine a stuffy old museum, as they used to be, and now there is a bright building – inside and out – with fine collections of relics from history with excellent and illuminary descriptions of the empires that have gone before us.

It was well worth the effort, but we have to admit that all of that walking around has had an effect on our legs and we did need to have a bit of a sit down and relax – think we must be getting old or something.

During our few days here we did manage to get the shopping done as well – although Diane was very disappointed that the Aldi was closed for renovations and so we repaid all of those free Waitrose coffees by getting the replenishments there – as well as having another free coffee.

 

Looking across Port Meadow back towards Oxford

A blog cannot be complete without a picture of cows - just because I can!

It was now time to move along and we left Oxford, for what may be the last time on the boat, and headed northwards.

The day started off just a little bit foggy, not misty, but not cold at all – there was no breeze and with all of the moored boats we just took it slowly.

By the time we were at the junction we had caught up with another boat so we were back to waiting at the lock – they were new to boating so it took them time; the hire boat coming down the lock were new as well, so they took their time, we were almost blocking the bridge hole for Duke’s Cut, so the boat coming through there took their time.

Eventually after 30 minutes we made it through the lock and continued north.

Coming to Roundham Lock (Lock 42) we noticed that there was a boat just coming out of the lock – I could clearly see the boat and the skipper, the weather had brightened up considerably – but I needed to sound the horn to let them know we were there as they were closing the gates.

Diane by this stage was already walking towards the lock; the other woman apologised saying that her husband didn’t tell her we were there – he did look a bit dim!

A very fine mooring was found at Thrupp – not on the 7-day mooring rings, but then we weren’t staying that long.

Whenever we stop in Thrupp there always seems to be a need to visit Annie’s Tea Rooms and since it was nearly lunch time, then why not.

The day had by now brightened up well and truly – the sun was out and it was quite lovely. The days are getting noticeably colder, and will get even colder in another month or two, but for now the presence of the sun, even a bit warm, is really nice, so we enjoyed it all.

There is such a huge difference between the Thames and canals – we have been quite used to the depth of the river, allowing us to cruise quite easily; little need to adjust speed when passing other boats; the canal with some shallow stretches, proximity to moored boats and the consequent need to slow down – there is a certain intimacy about the canals which you do not find on large rivers; but a sort of freedom on the rivers that is missing from the canals.

Love them both, we do!

14 Miles, 8 Locks

YTD:  738 Miles (1188 km) , 411 Locks, 10 Tunnels, 14 Lift Bridges, 3 Swing Bridges

Total: 4533 Miles (7296 km), 3110 Locks, 122 Tunnels, 59 Lift Bridges, 170 Swing Bridges

A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a fuel pump??

Tuesday 18^th October to Sunday 23^rd October 2016

We prepared to leave Day’s Lock and everything was going well until the moment came to actually…well, go!

There was some spluttering coming from the engine bay, which sounded not at all good, and fortunately we were able to re-moor whilst one of us had a look below (oh, that would be me – after all the engine area is a designated blue job).

A few years ago, we had a problem when the engine wouldn’t start at all; luckily at the time we were moored with Paul and Elaine (nb Caxton as was) and Paul with all of his skills quickly diagnosed the problem that one of the wires to the fuel pump had come unstuck – with deftness he quickly re-inserted it.

Over the intervening time, my size 11’s have done a good job on a few occasions of pulling out one or both and I, being a quick learner, did exactly the same as Paul – re-inserted the problem leads.

This day, it was the same problem, but time has wearied the rubber grommet that held them in place so it took a little longer to get it going, but she eventually did the job and we were able to head off on our way.

Something should have said to me that it was about time to see about replacing the fuel pump and save the angst of a problem like this – someone should have just said exactly that – maybe they did and, as usual, I wasn’t listening to Diane.

The weir at Abingdon - just another lovely weir along the Thames
on a very nice day again.

Anyway, all was well and we cruised all the way to Abingdon and moored up just past the bridge on the eastern side – lovely mooring and in the wide open – it meant that if there was a wind we would be unprotected, but if there was sun then we were set; we had chosen this mooring in preference to those with rings before the bridge – there was to be some prophetic wisdom in that selection.

Abingdon was on the list of places that we wanted to see more of, before we exited from the Thames this year and so we took advantage of the couple of nights that we had planned on being here.

 

The market square

St. Nicholas' Church

Looking towards St Helens Church

One of the older pubs in Abingdon - right on the Thames

This is for Bev - who just loves chimneys

Friday arrived; Diane had plans to head to Oxford – I think she had Moules and Frites on her mind at the Old Bookbinders in Oxford; I had plans of still moving along; Ferndale – she had plans too, but none of them coincided with ours.

Engine started, everything ready; we pushed off to wind and get some diesel at Abingdon Marine – halfway around the engine splutters and dies – would not restart and we are drifting in the middle of the Thames – I knew what was wrong, so as I started to work on the electrical leads to the pump, Diane was doing her best to guide the boat to the side, which she did magnificently – in fact, so good, we ended up exactly where we had left, but facing the other way.

No matter what I did, the leads would not reconnect and let the pump do what it was meant to do; then whilst checking on the flow of diesel, I found none coming through – was there a blockage somewhere. Took every pipe section apart and could not find a blockage anywhere – what the hell!!

I knew that it had to be that the fuel pump was the problem – do you think we could find anyone anywhere on a Friday afternoon – it had taken 4 hours or so to check on everything; to phone around – places either closed; no fuel pumps; no engineers available – so no way of starting the engine – which of course means no power for the batteries; no power for the fridge/freezer; no hot water.

The only power that we were getting was from the solar panels, so our decision to moor where we did had paid off well - we were able to keep everything going.

Everyone says that the fuel pump is the heart of the engine and they were completely right.

Here we were with the list of possibilities fast dwindling and the likelihood of a delayed wait to fix the problem – it wasn’t that we didn’t know what the problem was, it was simply that we were not sure where we would/could find the replacement part.

So, with no chance of fixing it that day we settled down for a different sort of night – we still had the Reflecs giving us a warm boat, but that was a saving factor.

After a worrying night, when I thought that we could very well be here until Tuesday or even Wednesday, Diane suggested ringing Chris Jones (up north of Stoke) who has worked on the boat and he suggested a name of a guy he knew down here who might help – Chris, himself, had a fuel pump and we were tempted to hire a car and drive the 150 miles and buy it off him.

Anyway, we rang Chris’ contact – Clive Mant – and yes, he had a pump, was happy to bring it over before lunch; we had a chat and he left it with me to fit it in – pump in and fitted but it would not pump – ARRRRRGGGGHHH!

Rang Clive, he had another one – slightly different model – which he brought over and I swapped it over – Clive wasn’t leaving until we had it going – so, we knew it was working now – the characteristic “clicking” noise – but there was so much air in the line – we needed to bleed it everywhere – fuel filter; injectors; return line – after a half hour of all of this, we turned the engine over again and she caught and was running and running and running.

Oh yes!! Relief and joy!!

Afterwards it was easy to sit down again, but out of all of this you look back and see all of the things that you have now learnt to add to the pool of knowledge that you had acquired.

I do know one thing that if it had not been for Clive and his help, we might still be there.

So anyone in the Oxford area who needs someone who can help with boat problems then please give Clive Mant a call (0790 4031 758) – on top of it all he is such a really nice guy as well.

We are building up a list of good reliable people who can help when our knowledge is insufficient.

We stayed the night, but the engine did have a good 2 hour run whilst it was going and in the morning (now Sunday) we did finally fill with diesel and the cruised up to Oxford where we found a good mooring at East Street.

To celebrate all of this we walked along to The Old Bookbinders pub/restaurant for dinner and were rewarded yet again with their lovely crepes - we can highly recommend the entire menu.

 

Diane's was Ham, Cheese and Egg; mine was the Mexican crepe;
both were exceptionally nice

A better end to a bitter few days, which we celebrated with a lovely cup of tea.

PS: the pump that didn’t work – seems that it was my installing that caused the problem – it does work fine.

 

I feel exactly like this more and more

16 Miles, 6 Locks

YTD:  724 Miles (1165 km) , 403 Locks, 10 Tunnels, 14 Lift Bridges, 3 Swing Bridges

Total: 4519 Miles (7273 km), 3102 Locks, 122 Tunnels, 59 Lift Bridges, 170 Swing Bridges

Just moving right along

Tuesday 4^th October to Friday 7^th October 2016

Mooring at Teddington means being fairly close to the wier there and consequently a degree of background noise – we were exhausted again on Monday night and did not hear a thing as we hopped into bed – awaking reasonably refreshed on Tuesday morning.

A bit more work completed and then time to cruise away; another lovely sunny day again – are we still in England – we keep hearing of bad weather further north, but for us it has been quite lovely indeed – we know that it is a bit cooler, but it is sunny!!

We needed to have a reasonably quick stop at Kingston – Diane wanted to get a few things that she hadn’t found and I needed to visit the HSBC branch there – whilst we were cruising to Limehouse on Sunday, I was walking the towpath and came across a debit-card lying there. I called the bank on Sunday evening to advise them, they cancelled the card and I needed to just drop it into the nearest branch – hence a stop at Kingston.

A bonus was that on our way back to the boat we found a quite large asian supermarket which we hadn’t been looking for but we picked up a few more ingredients that Diane wanted to use in the Japanese pancakes that she has been making – they taste better than the ones in Paddington Basin and just as good as the best we have been used to.

After an hour stop we pushed off and as we neared Hampton Court Palace a cruiser coming towards us but a distance away, was winding and then mooring up on the moorings there – imagine our surprise to find when we got closer that the cruiser was the ONLY boat moored there – we had never seen it like that before – pity that we didn’t want to stop there.

 

...still known as the "Selfie-Queen"

Our planned destination was around Shepperton. It was only about an hour and a half away and with the day as pleasant as it was we enjoyed the time outside on the water and the wind sweeping through our hair.

Up through Shepperton lock and around the island we moored up at “Chersey Meads” right behind Still Rockin’ – well fancy that, it was almost as though we knew they were right there – wait a minute, we did – Diane had seen on the blog and had texted to Carol that we were on our way.

A cuppa on board with both George and Carol and another couple (Colin and Rikki) who were building a wide-beam – so a chat about various things on boats for cruising the Thams and canals – Colin and Rikki were more attuned to sea-going craft.

Later on, George did the honours with the BBQ, and a great job he did too! We enjoyed a lovely evening with two very lovely friends and honoured we are to be able to say that.

 

A Master Chef lesson for me from George (the master)

for everyone to see - Diane with salad - it certainly amused Carol

We needed to move along the next day, so at 9am we waved farewell to both and we were off again – not so much as a tight schedule but one that we wanted to keep moving now rather than having to stress later if we got tight with time.

 

The start of a lovely sunny day

Approaching Staines, we spotted a familiar vessel – No Problem XL – we pulled alongside, Vic appeared but there was no Sue – she was off visiting to Les and Jackie (nb Valerie) – our best wishes go to both at this time.

Anyway we chatted with Vic or a little while – he still delights in stirring up Diane and it works every time – he was looking decidedly well and enjoying the bit of sunshine that we happened to be having at the time.

We needed to be off and said our farewells to Vic and left him to enjoy his day.

The wind was picking up and after transiting through Bell Wier Lock (with the grumpy lockie) we moored up about a half mile further along.

Diane had done the washing whilst we cruised and thought the lovely little breeze (read that at blowing a gale) would dry it quick smart – well she got it hung out, but wasn’t game to leave for fear that it would disappear – so she spent an hour holding onto it and was looking quite pleased at the end of the hour – it was all dry.

 

Diane had the windswept look but she was glad to have the washing dry

A walk into Egham was rewarding – we found a ship’s decanter in a charity shop for a fiver – now we have three of them. Free coffee at Waitrose, something to eat and then back to the boat.

Whilst Diane was away on her week of cruising the Med. (and leaving me on my own) there were a few shows that needed recording so that she could watch them when she returned, so we needed to start catching up on these programs – always good to do on a blowy evening.

She spent Thursday early morning (after 7am) in bed with her usual coffee and wrote a form of plan for our cruising – Thursday meant that we would be heading to Oxford, so now I knew where we were heading and head off we did at around the usual time – which is between 9am and 10am.

Sadly the weather was not as brilliant as it had been, but the sun was out at times; there were a lot more boats on the move today after the previous days windy weather. Many of the locks we have been through have been on self-service, so whilst I controlled the boat, Diane opened the sluices and watched me bobble about.

 

Always nice to get that first look of Windsor Castle

We found a lovely mooring just beyond the main mooring area – just outside the river-side gym – and here we plan to spend a couple of days – a planned rest day, and a chance for shopping (me thinks!).

No sooner had we finished tying up the ropes than the mooring sherriff was passing a slip of paper towards us (all filled in) and seeking some payment – bloody quick if you ask me.

Unfortunately,  I was not quick enough to count out a large amount of small change to make the payment, but I did so on Friday.

 

Two Queens together 

It was nice to not move for a day and a perfect early start to the weekend (well a day early) – we managed to get the shopping done (for some clothes).

More catching up on recorded programs; the winter duvet has appeared from its summer hiding place – a sure sign of what will be coming when we start heading northwards.

We found it just cold enough on Friday night to light up the Reflecs for a few hours – just to take the chill off the air, but after a couple of hours it seemed pretty well warm enough.

23 Miles, 8 Locks

YTD:  667 Miles (1073 km) , 380 Locks, 10 Tunnels, 14 Lift Bridges, 3 Swing Bridges

Total: 4462 Miles (7181 km), 3079 Locks, 122 Tunnels, 59 Lift Bridges, 170 Swing Bridges

Dark Shadows, catastrophe and heritage trails

Monday 27^th June to Wednesday 6^th July 2016

We hung on in Thrupp for one more day before finally heading off early on Tuesday morning down to Oxford to moor up in Jericho; Sue and Andy veered off at Dukes Cut to head west on the Thames; Dot and Gordon carried onto Jericho where both boats moored up – there were what you might call “plenty of moorings for this area” and thus we had no problems.

We had seen most of the stuff in Oxford but still managed to while away a couple of hours before getting a message from Dot and Gordon– “fancy a drink” in Bookbinders – “hell yeah”.

A couple of bottles of red went down rather well before we walked back to the boats.

Just a late afternoon drink - Gordon was up for it!

Not long after, catastrophe hit – just simply wanting a cup of tea, the kettle was taking a bit of time to boil and would never have done so as we found out.

I had changed over the gas bottles just a day earlier, but we were out of gas – I can only blame myself for not tightening the connection fully – no chance of purchasing new bottles until the next morning.

Gordon came to the rescue loaning us their spare bottle for the evening; following morning we returned it; moved the boat down to the East Street mooring and strolled down to the Calor Gas Centre just a few hundred metres away and bought two new bottles – just £52 – back on board they were properly installed and we were literally “cooking with gas”.

First lock of the day - self service - the cruiser behind us was game coming in with us

Wednesday and we were ready to head off early; just waited got Dot and Gordon to come down through Isis Lock and then we headed off; we caught up with Andy and Sue who the previous day had about-faced and made back towards Oxford on the Thames but with no moorings until Sandford Lock had to settle for that.

Caught sight of and said hello to Tony (alias Peter) and Helen on nb Holderness who had moored there also – Diane had been reading their blog and knew they were around.

The three boats continued down to Abingdon where we moored up; Festina Lente morred behind us and Ewn Ha Cul carried on to Day’s Lock.

Abingdon

We had stopped at Abingdon last year but I had not been able to have a good look around and Diane liked the town so we thought that this was a good place to stop and with pleasant mooring it was an easy choice to make.

A bit of shopping and a bit of walking and we were largely satisfied; perhaps another day to just relax and enjoy the open space that we had been afforded would have been nice, but we do have a bit of a schedule (yet again!).

So it was onto Day’s Lock where it seemed that a great gathering of boats had occurred – well at least enough to make sure that the available mooring spots were all taken, but never to worry we breasted up next to Ewn Ha Cul and were behind Richard and Sharon (nb Oakapple).

We were being shadowed now as Holderness appeared from out of the sun (well just from the west) – they ventured through the lock to find a mooring spot below – hopefully.

Again, last year I had missed the walk into Dorchester; Dot wanted to see the archeological dig (in the middle of the allotments – probably likely to find an ancient carrot and cabbage as much as anything else).

The archeological dig - or is it just that the potatoes are ready for picking

Morning view...

...evening view

It was a lengthy walk into the town, but essentially it was well worth it – it has been the scenery used for many films and TV  shows – most notably Midsomer Murders – a visit to the church and to the museum and it would also have been an afternoon tea but the café wasn’t open - as a very last resort we opted for a drink in the pub – oh well, the sacrifice was worth it.

During this touristy bit we were surrounded by Tony and Helen – the dark shadows had found us – so the total for a drink now rose to 8.

from left, me, Richard, Sharon, Dot, Helen and Tony (at the back), Gordon and Diane
(at the front)

We knew they would be and it passed to be that they are a lovely couple with a good sense of humour – despite being from Hull, but we won’t hold it against them, just that Hull is in Yorkshire (sorry Jim and Joan!!)

Back to the boats; there was a bit of a gathering on the bank but the lack of any warmth and some tiredness necessitated a retreat back.

Earlyish (well very early - before 6am) next morning we cast off and the two boats headed further on – Ferndale and Ewn Ha Cul – we stopped at Beal Park; D and G carried on further – we had wanted to moor here to have a look at Basildon Park, which according to my lovely (distance-challenged) wife, was just a short walk away.

After jumping fences to avoid the road without a footpath and then hiking half the length of the A329 we found the entrance – it was then just a matter of an uphill climb to challenge the Tour de France climbers – we made it and luckily the air ambulance people were on standby with the oxygen tent already set up.

Despite the trek it was a particularly lovely property to look through – a property that has had a bit of a sad and abused history until a couple bought it back in the early 1950’s and saved it from ruin – restoring it to its appropriate grandeur.

Passed by Seyella in Wallingford - pretty well sure that they would have moved on by now

The entrance - found it after miles of trekking...

...but the house was well worth the effort

This is the Shell Room - just for Elaine

Going down the hill was much easier and the boat was just where we had left – thankfully!

Cruising along the Thames in the early morning is such a delight - just something that needs to be experienced..

We had said to ourselves that we would like to moor in places that we had not stayed previously and until this point we had achieved exactly no new places; now we would have a chance to see something new – and where do you think we picked – lovely Reading – some very lovely moorings well above Caversham bridge where we had stayed last year had become non-mooring sites – due to the lobbying of the well-heeled snobs across the river who had tired of seeing boaters getting to stay for free.

This was the early picture just down from the lock that Diane operated - the gate on
the right is where she would need to come through to get back on the boat.
Unfortunately I didn't get a photo, but moments later these cows all crowded around the gate,
and poor Diane couldn't get through - her "fear" of cows didn't help either.
The faint cries of "help" could be heard and after tying the boat, there was a little bit of
hand-clapping to move them all away.

Anyway we decided that the environs closer to the bridge would be just as nice – and they would have been had it not been few hundred geese and swans that inhabited the area – it was not that they were particularly noisy (only at about 4:30am) but it was the extraordinary amount of shit that they left behind after stuffing themselves all day.

Still we spent a couple of days there (we cleared a path through it all from the boat to the footpath) – we explored Reading a bit; found where D and G moored in the town and had a few drinks with them; of course, we found the Waitrose for the free coffee and as our visit also covered a Monday, Diane was quickly onto having lunch at the Slug and Lettuce.

Overall it was a pleasant experience.

The Kennett - going through Reading...

...and the old castle - now off-limits due to unstable stonework

We met a lovely lady from nb Lunas – Evelyn (cannot remember her husband’s name – sorry about that) – well when I say met, she rapped on the side of the boat and after a brief chat with Diane, very politely said that I needed to get a hurry up and get the blog up to date – how could I refuse? I wasn’t game to argue with her – she was about 2 feet shorter but I am sure she would have pummelled me.

So now I am getting it done.

Managed to spot this fellow at one of the locks...

...before he flew off

...and these guys waiting to be fed breakfast

The moorings were only for 48 hours so we needed to move, this time heading towards Hambledon Lock moorings – downstream from Henley.

Unfortunately Diane was talking to someone at one of the locks who told her that Elton John would be there in concert the following night – that was it, we had to find moorings in Henley and she would find a spot somewhere where she could listen to the concert.

I gently pointed out that Wales were playing that night also – which would she do?

At that point in time, Wales could wait.

Well we found a mooring spot, just up from Ewn Ha Cul, with Festina Lente a few more boats closer to town – yes we were all back together.

A little excitement in Henley, as though regattas were not enough; the Argentinian Steakhouse was obviously doing too many steaks much too well done - a fire broke out in the back area and all patrons were safely evacuated as well as the staff - also every other shop, cafe and restaurant for 50 metres in every direction

We managed to find a heritage trail to find out a bit more about the town; Gordon and Andy decided to do a heritage trail of their own – the history of some of the pubs in the town – so absorbed in the historical facts of these establishments, we found them just in time to direct them back to the boats – not inebriated, but they would have been happy to continue.

The girls at play on their favourite tree...

...and this - if only!

As it turned out the concept of listening to the concert lost it’s appeal and all three boats moved off the following day – Ewn Ha Cul went on and on and on; we opted for the free mooring above the lock at Marlowe and FL were able to drop in just in front of us.

We had definitely not been here before – apparently Steve Redgrave was born here.

Again, another heritage trail to follow here – these are very informative and free of charge – just book with Diane (you also have to moor in the same town as us as well!)

Part of the exclusive heritage trail tour

I understand that he is giant of a man in rowing circles, but
Marlowe favourite son - Steve Redgrave - has a slightly
larger than life statue.

Here we stayed for the night – very quiet and very peaceful – but sadly it was not a hoped-for win to Wales in the semi-final, but they have done very very well indeed!!

Just a photo of what appears to be a pretty normal post box - much the same as
you would see anywhere in the country ...

...not sure that the collections would be likely to be too regular - certainly it
would be difficult to post and collect

61 Miles, 29 Locks, 4 Lift Bridges

YTD:  376 Miles (602 km) , 258 Locks, 4 Tunnels, 14 Lift Bridges, 3 Swing Bridges

Total: 4125 Miles (6600 km), 2957 Locks, 116 Tunnels, 59 Lift Bridges, 170 Swing Bridges