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.