Pastoral mooring beside a pasture on the Thames

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Pastoral mooring beside a pasture on the Thames

Tuesday, 28 June 2011 10:33

So now we are travelling downstream - again!

Leaving Cleeve Lock behind

All this is familiar, but I can still spot things to blog about and take lots of snaps .......

Oh, look a familiar narrowboat with Geoff in a familiar place!

It is goodbye for a couple of days, but we have a supper date later in the week with the crew of Petroc. We continued down Goring Lock with the same boats as we had at Cleeve Lock.

Entering Goring Lock

The sun had disappeared behind cloud but it was still very hot. There were only a few gongoozlers; I suppose it was a bit early for the crowds to gather. Hidden away on the east side of the lock are the old boat houses. Some of them are now a dentist's surgery.

Boat houses and moorings beside Goring Lock

This photo does not do justice to the lovely hanging baskets on Goring Bridge, but it shows the moorings beyond, which were full over the weekend. We forgot to stop to dump our rubbbish here - ah well, next one is Shiplake Lock!

Goring Bridge, below the lock

As we cruised through Goring Gap, I managed to snap some of the boats moored in eyots on the west bank. I have tried three times to get this one and missed it ....until today.

Barge moored before Gatehampton Railway Bridge

The River Thames then bends before the railway bridge; I got the train! (that's photographed it, not caught it. Ed.) The bridge was built by Brunel (as regular readers will already know) and widened 57 years later, maybe thinking about the future, as it now carries our more modern trains on a regular service.

Looking downstream towards Gatehampton Bridge

The bank on the east side closes in after the bridge and the wooded sides become very steep. Once around another bend, the extensive Beale Park moorings begin on the opposite side. Some of these are quite isolated, separated by clumps of waterside trees and against pasture, where seemingly free ranging cattle graze.

We were looking for a mooring that would allow John to paint our port gunnels and hull to match the starboard side he did at Theale on the K and A. Spotting a possibility, we turned around. Passing through the channel at what we have dubbed the "North Island", we moored up. We moored at "South Island" on our way up - there are less geese here!