Windsor - Again!

We had an undisturbed night after the nocturnal swimmers left and it finally went quiet. We woke early to the sound of some enthusiastic (and very fit) people exercising on the bank beside the boat and decided to get up and enjoy the early morning sunshine.

Swans waking up in the sunshine

Marlow Bridge

We walked the dogs around the park which was full of runners, power walkers and other dog walkers. Then we saw it! A distant figure which turned out to be a statue of Sir Steve Redgrave, but with an addition the artist had never envisaged - a pair of underpants, presumably discarded by one of the late night swimmers....

Sir Steve looking bashful!

After breakfast we went into Marlow to explore and to check the status of the Monsoon sale, which Angela has been eagerly anticipating. As we walked along the line of boats, past Mr Unhelpful, we spotted a boat which had been extended - must be interesting to manoeuvre in tight spaces!

Extended boat

Marlow is a nice little town, and it has charity shops and a Monsoon shop, so Angela was pretty much in heaven. We wandered up and down the high street and Angela made a couple of acquisitions, after which we enjoyed a coffee in a cafe which specialised in fabulous chocolate creations. I surprised myself because we just had coffee!

Marlow High Street from the coffee shop

We returned to the boat and made ready for departure. Before we left, we noticed that the boat had again been covered in what look like discarded skins of mosquitoes. We have seen this before, and assume that larvae crawl up the side of the boat and transform into mosquitoes, but that could be a load of bunkum!

Mosquito leftovers?

So, we set off, turning round and returning in the direction from whence we came. Now heading downstream, we made faster progress since the current was now helping rather than hindering progress. We passed through Marlow lock and then out into the country again, spotting a number of red kites soaring around above the trees.

A red kite

Back in Maidenhead we stopped to let the dogs off and to eat the rolls we had brought from the coffee shop this morning. Passing through Maidenhead you see some amazing houses.

Quite nice

Quite nice two!

And another

Even the pets are special

Moving downstream from Maidenhead, we spotted a tree with three Shags (or are they Cormorants?) sitting at the top:

Can you spot all 3?

No, neither could we! There were three, but only two made it into the photo, the other one being obscured by the branch in the foreground! A little further on, Angela was sitting up at the front of the boat, when I spotted a boat we had seen in a magazine article. As I attempted to capture it on film, Angela, unaware of what I was doing saw that we were apparently heading for the bank and assumed I had fallen asleep!

Not one boat, but two

The thing that makes this boat interesting is that it is in two parts - a conventional narrow boat and an extension which has a bow shaped indentation which slots around the front of the main boat. The two are then clamped together and behave as one bigger boat. There, that was interesting wasn't it! As we neared Windsor yet again, we were approached by Somali pirates, but after a brief exchange, they capitulated.

We came into Windsor and after a brief exploration of mooring options, we have moored up again in exactly the same place again, but with different neighbours. As I write this, we are wondering who will turn up later to entertain us into the night......