Inside the M25

Morning dawns beside the railway

We slept surprisingly well considering the proximity of the railway line and the constant stream of planes overhead. It had rained overnight but was just cool and damp as we let go the ropes and set off.

 We waved to the queen and shouted our thanks for last night's tea.

 Two narrowboats selling coal

 David Penk

We met this canoist as we approached Bell Weir lock. He is raising money for Help the Heroes by paddling 700 miles in 5 weeks. He is on the final stretch and is due back in Guildford tomorrow. We left him behind and sailed on before stopping for lunch in Laleham. David caught us up and so Angela offered him a cup of tea and a bacon sandwich which he gleefully accepted. He has had an amazing journey, sleeping in a hammock most nights and eating off a campfire. He has covered most of the canals and rivers we have been on including the tidal Trent. A tremendous effort.

 A formation of swans

 Now that's a houseboat!

 "Get off my land"

 Someones little runabout

 Gulls and ducks fighting for bread

Once moored for the night, we were surrounded by waterfowl including many gulls. There were lots of squabbles over bread with the gulls grabbing bread from the beaks of ducks.

 I'm the most handsome swan of all

 A cute big baby gull

 Tonight's mooring in Shepperton

We are moored opposite a weir at the junction between the River Thames and the River Wey, outside a pub. It's a lovely spot with large expanses of water in all directions.

 A distant shot of a green parrot

It is well known that there are lots of green parrots around West London, and we have seen quite a few today. Trying to photograph them is really hard because they appear suddenly, skreech and then rush off flying in a zig zag pattern.

Sunset

We contacted Limehouse Lock tonight and discussed the trip through central London we hope to make on Thursday. We are booked in to arrive at Limehouse at about 09:30, which means we have to leave Teddington lock at 06:00 to catch the tide and arrive while there is still enough water to get over the bar at the entrance to Limehouse. Tomorrow we are heading for Kingston, and intend to moor there for a while, before we finish up moored at Teddington.

Royal Windsor

 Our view downstream this morning.....

..... and upstream

The light this morning was beautiful and the views up and down the river stunning. We were soaking up the views when there was a loud tapping on the side of the boat. A lady had come to collect the £4 mooring fee. I said that we had looked but had not seen anything to suggest that we would have to pay a fee, and so she pointed out the sign which clearly stated this - should have gone to Specsavers!

 My, what big wings you have

There were masses of wildfowl milling about this morning, and several swans curled up asleep, just drifting along in the middle of the river.Once Angela appeared with bread, they came rushing over and a feeding frenzy ensued.

 Cruising through Cookham

We set off in the direction of Windsor, and the condidtions were perfect. A few cruisers passed by but it was quiet and the river was like a millpond again. We met up with some nice people in the locks, and we also came across a boat that was annoying everyone. It was a beautiful boat with every gadget imaginable for manouvering. In the locks, everyone else tied their boats to mooring posts, but this guy was wandering about with a remote control operating his bow and stern thrusters all the time, inching his boat to and fro.

 A grebe with a cute baby on its back

 A beautiful house amongst the trees

 Maindenhead is awash with fabulous houses

 And another

 Even the boat houses are incredible

 Karenna and Zivanai on Banjo

We reached Windsor and moored up to visit the town. As we walked along the riverside path, a voice called out "Angela and Graham" - it was Karenna, Angela's brother's daughter in law. An amazing but loveley coincedence. Karenna was with her son Zivanai who we hadn't met before, and her friend Christina with her two boys Guy nd Noah. We all went back to the boat and enjoyed some time together before heading back up the river and into town.

 We visit the queen for tea

Windsor was awash with tourists, particularly around the castle and we felt very special as we pushed through the crowd and went in to have tea with her majesty. (I may have eggagerated a bit here. We did eat, but in a cafe!)

A cute shopper!

We explored a bit more and picked up a few more loaves of duck bread from Waitrose - nothing but the best for Angela's friends. We spotted this lady leaving a shop - people like to dress well to shop in WIndsor. We decided to stay in Windsor for the night, but are wondering if this was a wise decision, since we appear to be under the flightpath for heathrow and next to a busy railway bridge......

A Sunday Outing

The centre of Marlow

We had several boats pass us during the night, causing us to rock about quite a bit since we were moored away from the bank. All we could see were navigation lights as they swept past in the dark - quite eerie. It was bright this morning as we headed into Marlow to meet Sam, Jamie and Michelle. We managed to find a space to moor in the centre of Marlow and went into the town to explore and to pick up a few provisions.

Waiting in a long queue for the lock

We chatted to a guy on an adjacent very large cruiser - his boat was bigger in every way, including his running costs - it cost him about £8 to warm up his engines before he sailed away at 1 mile to the gallon! Sam, Jamie and Michelle arrived and we set off, heading towards Henley. The river was really busy today with loads of cruisers and hire boats. We joined a queue at a lock, behind a cruiser which was following a hotel boat called Baglady! The lock keepers were doing a good job a squeezing as many boats as possible into the locks which required careful navigation to avoid scraping the shiny white boats.

 Sun worshippers

 An ice cream boat

 A high-tec pedalo

We came up behind what appeared to be a kayak moving without a paddle. It was a pedal operated kayak, and it was moving almost as quickly as we were without much apparent effort.

 A cute dragonfly

We stopped at the end of the Henley Regatta course, and had tea. It had clouded over by this time and so we were inside when it happened. A full size dragon fly flew into the boat and started flying around us in the saloon. Neither Sam or Michelle like fluttering things, and the dragonfly induced considerable panic and squeeling! Angela captured it in a colander and it then posed for the camera, before we released it.

 All smiles as we return to dry land

We returned back to Marlow after a really nice afternoon, and moored up in a spot labelled NO MOORING to say goodbye to Sam, Jamie and Michelle. We then set off in search of somewhere to moor for the night. We made it into Marlow lock as the church clock struck 7 and the lock keeper finished for the day - phew.

 A castle like house

All the official moorings around Marlow were full and so we headed downstream looking for somewhere we could tie up for the night. We covered a few miles before we happened across an almost perfect spot.

Sunset from tonight's mooring

We are moored in Bourne End, against a decent quay with mooring rings and a nice view. The only down-side is that there is a railway about 30 yards fom the boat! Trains have been passing all evening, hooting as they pass the nearby crossing - we are hoping that they will stop for the night soon......

A fabulous birthday

 A cute Egyptian Goose

We enjoyed a really quiet night moored in the middle of nowhere and awoke to a dull damp morning. Angela spent a little time feeding fish in the very clear water, before we set off. By the time we left, the sun had started to shine.

 A fabulous riverside dwelling

 The centre of Henley

We reached Henley and decided to moor up and head into town. The waterfront in Henley was busy as usual with all manner of boats going to and fro. We explored the town centre and then decided to have lunch in a fish restaurant.

 Graham , the victim of a wardrobe malfunction

It was my birthday and Angela gave me, amonst other things, the fabulous watch you can just see in the picture above, and I celebrated by wearing my shirt inside out! I had changed shirts before we left the boat, and somehow managed this. We hadn't noticed until Angela said "I havent noticed those green panels on the shoulders of you shirt before". I looked down at my shirt and realised why! Having nipped to the gents to rearrange things, we enjoyed a really good meal.

 Passing through the Henley waterfront

 A red kite

We have seen quite a number of red kites over the past few days, but they always disappear before we can get the camera ready. This time, one came pretty much overhead and Angela managed to capture it.

 Temple Island

 Banjo in a lock with lots of cruisers

There were lots of boats about today and we shared most locks with several other craft. The owners of the really big, shiny glassfibre cruisers are really nervous about narrowboats scratching their gleaming hulls. It is fun to watch their faces as we come into a lock which already has cruisers in it, and they start to wonder if we will stop before our 15 ton metal lump makes contact!

 A nearby airshow

 Another impressive building

 A beautiful old launch

There are some lovely old boats in this part of the world. Sleek wooden launches glide by and we have seen several steam powered craft. Most of the fabulous houses along the river have equally fabulous boats moored in their fabulous boat houses - fabulous!

The view from Banjo tonight

 We struggled to find somewhere to moor again tonight. We have ended up moored about a metre from the bank due to shallow water - getting ashore with the ropes was quite an exercise. The reward however is this great view across to Bisham Abbey. Tomorrow we hope to meet up with Sam and Jamie in Marlow, to cruise around a bit and discuss wedding plans.

Fabulous Birds

 Serene early morning river

We upped sticks and headed out of Wallingford shortly after 8:30 this morning. A few boats had left a bit earlier, to avoid being caught by the council official collecting overnight mooring fees! The river was quiet and the water like a millpond as we headed downstream, and then........

 At last, a kingfisher captured on film

.... Angela spotted a kingfisher sitting on a branch, some way off. We stopped and reversed, hoping to sneak a little closer. Amazingly, the beautiful, illusive bird stayed put and we were able to take some pictures of it. We have seen fleeting glimpses of several kingfishers on this trip, but have never managed to capture one before. Today we were lucky and were thrilled to bits.

 An amazing garden shed

Again, we saw many incredible houses with some amazing boat houses at the end of beautiful gardens. Amongst them was this glass sided building hanging out in space - must be a great place to watch the world go by.

 Canoes everywhere in Pangbourne

 An enforcement officer Heron

 Alpacas R Us

We passed what appeared to be an Alpaca farm - there were hundreads of the wooly creatures covering several fields alongside the river.

 Grebe and babies

 A swan showing off

A grebe captures a fish

We stopped for some lunch in Reading, and watched a family of coots with really noisy babies squeaking the whole time. Then a grebe appeared close by, so we grabbed the camera, but it disappeared below the waves. But, a few seconds later it appeared with quite a big fish in its mouth

 Down it goes

 The grebe then proceeded to swallow the fish whole, and did this right in front of our camera.

 Just the tail left now

After several seconds of gulping, the last bit of the fish slid down its throat and the grebe swam off presumably with indigestion.

 A black swan

 Beautiful Sonning lock

Most of the Thames locks are really well maintained with lots of flowers - Sonning lock is particularly lovely.

Tonight's remote mooring

We passed through Sonning, looking for somewhere to moor for the night, but we could only find a space in a £10 per night spot on a rough bank. That didn't look like very good value, so we ploughed on down the river. Trying to find a place to moor one after about 4pm is difficult, and it was now about 6pm. Luckily, about a mile fiurther downstream we found a bit of bank and a tree to tie up to, and we managed to moor there. It has turned out to be a great spot with absolute quiet, surrounded by reeds with only waterfowl for company.