Do we really have to go back upstream again?

Thursday, 07 July 2011 17:01

"Ohh yes ... " as that dog says ..... However it was only for one night and first we scouted out downstream for a mooring for the night after. This meant going almost to Marsh Lock before turning around. We could admire more houses -

Tudor style "pile" with a lovely water frontage

So why the cruise upstream again?

To pick up our paint at Caversham Boat Services, of course! We needed some diesel too, 97 pence/litre before tax. We would spend the night moored at Caversham on the Thameside Promenade and then finally leave Reading and its environs behind, thank goodness.

Caversham Boat Services

So for this blog I will stick to houses and boats on the way. There are old, modern and many in-betweens along the River Thames frontage. Some have boats moored at the end of the garden but I am surprised at the number that don't.

This older one covered in ivy looks as if it has a walled garden. The ivy is even climbing the chimney and TV aerial.

Ivy clad house

Now this house has the right idea - a narrowboat at the end of the garden

Nb Little Jazz and very nice house with hanging baskets for decoration

There are a couple of very modern houses, built on stilts in case of flooding, we presume. Somehow they look a little out of place amongst the more "classic" riverside houses.

Modern house on stilts

I wondered (aloud unfortunately, as John pooh poohed the idea!) whether this cruiser was owned by a member of the group; were they just fans and named it after the group or did the owners really think it was a "super tramp" boat.

Cruiser Supertramp at Wargrave

We love these wooden launches - they are all in such good condition. We remember the days when hire boats on the River Thames were wooden and John remembers beginning a holiday from Bushnell's at Wargrave when he was but a lad. The Bushnell family have been trading here since 1917, building and hiring craft through the war and the hey days of the 1960s and 70s of "traditional craft". Sadly they no longer hire out boats, but their good reputation continues. The senior member of the family is a Royal Waterman to the Queen.

Bushnell's and Thameside Marina

We had company in Shiplake Lock and Sonning Lock - some Americans on one of the "Le Boat" hire cruisers. The usual questions arose when one of them discovered that we lived aboard and continuously cruised. Home for them was New Orleans and Austin countryside and their visit to the UK was a week on the Thames, a few days in Edinburgh (via the "fast train") and the same in London. A whistle stop tour methinks!

Le Boat hire cruiser

River Thames, Wargrave Marsh to NW Thameside Promenade (via Poplar Eyot)
2 hours 53 minutes, 11.01 miles, 3 locks