There's something stuck behind the gate!

Really hoped that the weather forecast wasn't real - it was for torrential rain from 10am til 7pm. Erk.

Set off early, as we were triple breasted and we were on the outside we thought we'd better set off early.

First Londony thing that happened was seeing a red double decker going over a bridge above our heads. Feels like home.

Dog totally ecstatic to be back on the canals, of course and performed a death leap off the boat as we approached the first lock landing.

Out of the first lock we had our second Londony thing happening to us. A prop fouling! Ace, we must be close to home! We were comforted by the smell of the canal -pooh! (and probably wee as well).

At every lock there was Something Stuck Behind The Gate. That's the Hanwell flight, for you. Thought it might make a good chorus for a folk song, think this flight deserves a folk song writing for it.

At the third lock we picked up a massive tree trunk, it got wedged right accross the front of the boat under the hull, we had to muck about reversing and levering it with the barge pole to get it off.

There were several sacks of old clothes deposited on the tow path here and there, future prop foulings, perhaps?

But it didn't rain. Phew!

It started when we got to Tescos and it was biblical. Now when we volunteered on the Pirate Club boats, the journey home down this canal after a trip was when you cleaned the boat. So that was my excuse. I felt a bit guilty so the boat got a proper scrub and Toby was drenched. I poked a hot tea out of the back-hatch at half hourly intervals and I think he just about survived.

Eventually arrived at a packed Little Venice at about 8pm. Collapsed, had dinner, wine and bed.

Runnymede to Brentford

Took the dog up into the Runnymede estate in the morning, through the woods. This is a beautiful place, sadly noise polluted by planes and cars.

By 9,30 am we were off. Over breakfast I'd figured out the tide times - we thought that even though we'd not booked, it might be worth getting to Teddington incase we could go out on the evening high tide. You are supposed to book Brentford Lock out of hours, but we know from experience that this isn't always the case.

I steered for most of the day - including hair raising boating through lots of kids in sailing dinghies at Sunbury, two of which managed to crash right infront of me.

We arrived at Teddington before 4pm, I went to see the lockie and he said we could go onto the tideway at 5.30pm. We were at the back of the queue so when our turn came, the lock was already full, so he put us in the super huge barge lock instead, with a trip boat. I was a bit dissappointed that they used the middle gates (instead of the end ones) to save water, but at least we can say we went through the barge lock!

Once onto the tideway, it started to pour down. We've not been on the River when the tide is high - it really does get high, swallowing the end of peoples gardens, the bottoms of roads and leaving park benches knee deep. And the rubbish! Quite a shock to see bin bags and bike wheels after the super clean non tidal reaches!

Bu the time we turned for Brentford Lock we were freezing cold. I made tea while we queued for the Thames Lock.

Once in Brentford, we rafted up - really busy here - no room! But we made it! Hanwell flight tomorrow!

Henley to Runnymede

After a day at Taplow yesterday, I was ready to get on my way again.

Took the dog out in Remenham Wood in the morning. IMO, it is well worth the trip up the main road.

We set off by about 10am but were delayed by filming - a costume drama about rowing in Henley. We had to wait as we would've wrecked the authenticity of their film had we come hurtling past in our 2001 semi trad modern narrowboat.

We set a cracking pace all day and although we'd planned to get as far as Windsor, we decided to keep going and ended up at Runnymede. They've completely redone the moorings here since we last passed in May. We moored in the same spot that we had done with mum, but it was newly piled, with hardwood top and new mooring bollards. Very impressive. And no one was using it, despite it being August. Had a celebratory beer on the bench outside our boat and we were both in bed by 10pm.

How did we do that?

Awoke moored in a cowfield opposite Moulsford. How did we get here? Jack Daniels magic carpet? I have no idea. All I know is that my cold is *really bad* now and all our clothes are *still* damp from our late night in Oxford.

Anyhoo, we are on schedule and that's a good thing! We had to get to Henley today. WEe stopped at Better Boating in Reading to get some diesel. We felt a bit sad to go tanking at past The Lynch - it would've been nice to moor there again.

Finally arrived in Henley on some visitor moorings. Toby will stay here all day tomorrow whilst I go to Taplow to do my monthly volunteering stint.

Oxford Isis Tarvern to Moulsford. (Ouch!)

As mentioned in last blog post. Woke up feeling weird. Very weird. Toby muttered something along the lines of, 'help! bacon sandwich!' I agreed so I hiked up to the main road to purchase dead pig, white bread and dashed back to cremate it and shovel it into him (and me) Our dog was overjoyed that we were eating meat products.

Phew! It worked! We were alive enough to boat!

We stopped briefly a couple of times. First at Abingdon lock where the electric gates failed - but not for long - phew!

Then in Abindgon to go to the chandlers. We've run out of stern grease completely - managed to get a pot just in time. We saw friends there and wasted time gossiping then came to our senses - gotta go, gotta go!

We moored that evening near Cleeve, in a field that I've had my eye on since last time we boated up this way. We had to use a plank but it was worth it.

How to Not Do Things

As we left Enslow, I put a message out on Facebook saying we were headed for Oxford. One of our friends in Oxford must've read this and messaged me. 'Meet in the Isis Farmhouse.'

We didn't think we'd make it there for some reason. Anyway, anyone planning rather long days boating, I have some advice for you.

Don't go to the Isis Tavern and drink three pints of cider. Don't then go onto the Co-Op and buy food. Don't go to your friends house in Oxford, cook vegetarian noodles, then serve Eton mess and don't drink red wine infront of their campfire at the bottom of their garden. Don't wash up then leave their house at 1.30am in order to go to a full moon bonfire by the Thames. Don't stay there 'til 3am, drinking more wine until it starts throwing it down. Don't walk home with rhubard leaves as headgear because you didn't bring any waterproofs. Don't wake up at 9.30am the next day 'feeling a bit weird.' Don't walk to the Co-Op and buy fry up ingredients because it's not possible to move the boat otherwise. Especially don't even though you set off *really late* stop in Abingdon to gossip with Workboat Pug for an hour (Ok, you did stop to buy stern grease I'll let you off).

Well, you know, just don't. And finally. Don't spill Rioja on the keyboard. It affects the speeeling. :/

Back, oh yes! Back!

Three weeks of waiting for news - then the phonecall came.

We made the most of our time away from the boat, we visited the Ivel and Shefford Navigation http://eawa.co.uk/ivel.html I made a grand total of 19 jars of jam. But oh we missed Rallentando. :(

A call arrived yesterday morning, the boat would be ready on Thursday. So I could wait no longer. Packed our bags, set the satnav. And we were back on Rallentando by the evening. How I had missed my boat. We had dinner on the bows, admiring the plants and trees around the marina. It is love.

We now have one week to get her back to London, so we won't be able to hang about. It will be like being on a hire boat holiday. We gotta get back to base!