Our first and only lock today was Culham Lock and the keeper arrived just as we were getting ready to operate it ourselves which made it nice and easy.  A few more red kites and herons but little else moving on the river.  This gave us lots of time to set up selfies!

We had decided to get a pump out at Abingdon and used the Abingdon Boat Centre just before the bridge.  Very nice thorough and pleasant service if a trifle expensive at £19.  It’s a good job we did not need diesel as their price averaged out at £1.15.  We topped up the water while waiting.

Although there are lots of moorings in Abingdon there were not all that many vacant spaces but we found a most acceptable spot on the right bank as we look at it.

We wandered into town for lunch and had a decent meal at The Broad Face before a walking tour of the locale.  Part of our walk took us along the side of the river opposite Oliver and gave us an opportunity for a picture we are rarely able to get.  On the way back we returned over the weir and lock.

We had a good chat with the lock keepers who take a pride in the appearance of their lock and seem to get lots of fun enhancing the garden with interesting carvings.  They have obviously had trouble with some boaters lacking understanding of rudimentary navigation.

Today’s plan was to stop off in Wallingford (aka Causton in Midsommer Murders), do some shopping and a bit of site seeing and then find a nice country mooring.  There are plenty shown in Pearson.  But on this stretch of The Thames Pearson is about as much good as a chocolate teapot when it comes to moorings.  They may show lots but they simply do not exist and many of the banks are very shallow in the edges.

So the first part of the plan went very smoothly.  It was a lovely day.  There were very few boats and we almost had the river to ourselves.

We had a relaxed lunch on board while moored in Wallingford and then started to meander our way along the river.  We passed yoghurt pot heaven at Benson the home of Le Boat.

Wallingford Bridge boasts 17 arches but only 5 span the river and I could not manage to get any more than those shown below in one picture.  I think I managed 11.

At 15:15 Romy experienced, what for her, has been the highlight of the whole trip.  She saw the first kingfisher she has ever seen.  This highly cooperative bird actually made a circuit of Oliver just for her.  We also saw quite a number of red kites and a couple of herons.

We were happy in the knowledge that moorings were numerous until, one after the other, we realised that they were figments of someone’s imagination.  Passing Clifton Hampden we had visions of carrying on to Abingdon.

At Clifton Lock we struck some bad luck.  The lock was self service and the previous boat had messed it up so the electrics were not working.  It took a lot of turns of the wheels to work it manually but we managed.  While we were waiting Peter was looking at the possibility of mooring on the lock bollards after exiting the lock and to his great surprise and joy he found that there was an official 24 hour mooring with space for two boats.  A yp was already there but there was just room for Oliver.  It is a lovely mooring in a delightful well protected spot, probably one of the best of the trip so far.  We reported to the Lock Keeper, as there is supposed to be a charge for the mooring, but he said he was on leave!  He said if we leave early, which we do most days, we will be gone before the morning shift arrives at 9am.

The hickory smoked beef bought earlier from Waitrose made a very tasty dish for dinner.

We left our mooring at 8:20 this morning with the somewhat infamous Fobney Lock a few hundred metres ahead.  Toby performed an immaculate pick up at the tricky exit and we were on our way to Reading.  It was early enough in the morning for the crowds to still be in bed and we hardly saw any gongoozlers.  One press of the button and the traffic lights turned to green and at Blake’s Lock we caught up with a boat that had passed our mooring earlier in the morning. We have some nice little pieces of GoPro video of this section which may eventually see the light of day!

The turn onto The Thames brought a completely different feel to the day and a change to the scenery.  We were into deep wide water and soon there were some elegant waterside properties to admire.  At Caversham we met Toby’s friend Praveen and his wife.  They declined our offer of a short trip but kindly supplied us with some very tasty and spicy bread.

We had considered mooring at Goring (wonderfully poetic) but it seemed that other boats wanted to race, in a competition to get any available spaces there.  We just relaxed and let them play silly whatsits.  Toby and Sarah had to catch a train or bus back to Oxford and Goring was the best choice for that so they helped us through the unattended Goring Lock and departed for the train.

It was sad to see Toby and Sarah leave as we had had a great couple of days together and had really appreciated their help.

Now we are going to have to get back to working a lot harder!

We continued through Cleeve Lock, which was still attended, and found a delightful spot on the bank almost opposite the Leatherne Bottel after threading our way through a sailing race.  It was very hot and sunny so we sat and relaxed watching the wild life and quite a variety of boats passing by.

It seems we were lucky to pick a spot where the water was quite deep near the edge.  A passer by remarked that she had never been able to moor here except about five hundred metres further on where there was a gate, that they used as a marker, and the water there was consistently deep near the edge.

We left  Woolhampton at 8:30 with Toby providing boat handling tuition to Romy, and Peter and Sarah working the lock and swing bridge – all managed beautifully.

The lock at Aldermaston is a little unusual as it has scalloped sides.

Once we had passed the long lines of hire boats at Aldermaston we were out into some very pretty stretches of countryside, which we had very much to ourselves.  It was easy to imagine being in our own secret world for a while.

There was even time to take a rest at the locks which were so much easier and quicker with four of us on board.

Romy was now feeling very confident and helming us through locks all on her own even with torrents of water pouring through the gates behind her.

At Garston we passed through the second of the turf locks, a somewhat smaller lock than the one at Monkey Marsh.

We are looking forward to another day of speedy progress tomorrow thanks to Toby and Sarah .

Peter faffed about, as usual, trying to find the perfect mooring between Southcote Lock and Fobney Lock but did succeed in finding a really beautiful spot.

We remained on our mooring at Woolhampton today.  It was a great opportunity to clean Oliver and ourselves and tackle a couple of small maintenance jobs.

There was only one hazard.

The willow trees spread their seeds on the wind and seem to have as their favourite target the inside of a narrow boat!

During the day we helped four boats through Woolhampton lock and the swing bridge so we were well prepared for the start of our own journey on the following morning.

We rewarded ourselves with a restful drink in the garden of the Rowbarge and waited for the main excitement of the day arriving on the 19:59.  Bang on 15 minutes late Toby and Sarah arrived at Midgham Station (aka Woolhampton) to a rapturous welcome.