Thursday 8^th August 2019

We had spoken with our neighbours yesterday, Ken and Mary, both in their mid-70’s who have lived on their boat, continuously cruising for 11 years. We had agreed to move up the river, doing the locks, together.

After a couple of trips to Tesco’s, again taking the trolley right to the boat and buying a new cordless vacuum cleaner, we set off. It felt fantastic to be out on the Thames. At Caversham Lock, there seemed to be plenty of colour and lots of people watching the boats. We were held for a while at the lock with a queue of cabin cruisers ahead of us. It is necessary to hold an Environmental Agency licence for navigating on the Thames. We had been told at Blake’s Lock that we would be able to obtain one at Caversham, but the lock was being manned by a volunteer who did not have authority to issue licences.

Beyond the lock was no doubt Reading’s better face and it looked lovely from the river. Reading Bridge was a particularly attractive bridge. All the way up Reading’s river front, we noticed the same signs for mooring payments as caused the confusion yesterday.

Reading Bridge

The river was wide and quite spectacular. The river side properties were gorgeous and must cost an absolute fortune. Most had huge gardens and their own boathouse with accompanying boat, mainly cruisers. The Thames very much met the expectation of affluence, as reflected by the river side properties and the many posh cruisers we saw. Brenda groups cruisers into a number of categories: yoghurt pots, semi-derelict homes of people one step from being homeless; cruisers, well cared for and maintained day cruisers and gin palaces, dripping money and most, towering above a lowly narrow boat. The Thames cruisers, almost all, fell into the Gin Palace category.    

     

We eventually obtained our licence at Mapledurham Lock, £68 for a 7-day visit. All the locks along the Thames are ran by the Environment Agency and are manned. The lock keepers, who wear a uniform, live in the lock keepers “cottages”. These were built by the Thames Conservancy at various times, and are grand houses. Each lock that we passed through, were situated in superb locations. Well maintained with lovely gardens beside the lock and grand weirs beside them.

The weir at Whitchurch Lock at Pangbourne dates from the 13^th century and the pound lock, from 1777. It was the first lock on the Thames to be mechanised. It is operated by push button, but can also be operated using a selector switch for gates or paddles and a wheel for operation of the hydraulic pumps. The lock keeper was on his lunch break, so Brenda operated this lock. 

While many impressive buildings were passed, of note was Mapledurham House, glimpsed through the trees, and Pangbourne College, founded in 1917 as a Nautical College for the training of future Merchant Navy Officers but now an independent day and boarding school that still retains some of its nautical past. 

Manny steered the boat for quite a while on the last stretch, the first time he has taken it this visit. One of the things we had to steer around, a first, were a pair of wild swimmers, crossing the river ahead of us.

We presently came to Goring, where we just managed to moor at the end of the moorings, with the front of the boat overhanging the outflow from the mill. We walked into Goring village, a lovely place as would be expected from a Thames-side village. Looking for a place to eat, the “Miller of Mansfield” looked far too expensive to take the kids, the “Swan”, on the opposite side of the river was the opulent restaurant part of a hotel, refused to take in “walk-in’s”. We then walked back into Goring and found the John Barleycorn pub, ran by a friendly guy from Middlesbrough of all places, who directed us to the Bull, at the top of the hill in Streatly, meaning once again, crossing over the river and walking up the steep hill. The Bull turned out to be just the place we were looking for, reasonably priced with good food.

Back at the boat, the kids went swimming in the river. Great fun. Manny was swimming from the back of the boat to a ladder at the lock landing, while Eva just stayed at the back of the boat. It came as a sobering surprise to us, just how hard it was to lift her from the water and has prompted us to buy a rescue ladder at the first available opportunity.

Weather: a lovely, sunny day.

Day Total: 3 locks; 11 miles; 0 Tunnels; 0 Swing Bridges; 0 Lift Bridges; 0 Boat Lift; engine running hours 4.5

Overall Total: 656 locks; 1147 miles; 49 tunnels; 57 Swing Bridges; 6 Lift Bridges; 2 Boat Lifts; engine running hours 728.8hrs