17th. June '15

Phew! What a day! 9miles, 7 locks and 8 bridges (lift, swing, electric or not). 7 hours
The first two locks were not brilliant, wind, current and my lack of confidence from yesterday were all to blame, nothing desperate, just not that good.
However I got the boat around Woolhampton bridge and lock, that only means anything to someone who's steered a boat around it! My adrenaline levels were off the scale! Done without a knock or scrape, unlike one of the earlier ones, where I caught the back of the boat under a shelf before a lock, John had to get the barge pole and lever it off....oops, he's painted the scar.
We are moored just under Monkey Marsh lock, the second turf lock on the system. I'm not keen on them, they feel wrong somehow.
We've got our system going for uphill, double locks, with the boat hook and ropes ready.
All the locks were against us, as expected, apart from one where a boat was coming down. Just one lock, at Aldermaston, we actually shared a lock with a lovely couple, Ian and Jill, but they were mooring at their home mooring before the next lock....typical,so otherwise we were on our own, very hard on John.
Anyway the good news is that we're almost at Newbury, so it's a short day tomorrow and some shops! A quick warning for other boaters.... Moorings at Monkey Marsh are minimal and there's NO-WHERE to moor before Woolhampton....just saying...we're actually at the very end of the lock moorings here, we just couldn't go any further.....

16th June '15

Short day today, we got to Sheffield Lock and moored. First reason that either the boat or I lost the power to steer. Bow thruster didn't want to know and I ended up in the hedge....twice! Thought there was something around the prop.....there wasn't. John checked the bow thruster and after initially not working it then did, so all is well....apart from no one checking me. Hopefully I'll have found my steering skills by tomorrow. Another reason for stopping was that John took a blood pressure tablet this morning, and he really shouldn't have. Hot weather and working the locks bought it down to a level that made him light headed. He's ok now.
Yesterday I think I forgot to mention the abundance of red kites we saw, they were everywhere, right up until I get my camera out, then magically they disappear! Also, apparently, the geese were Egyptian and not hooter, I had a photo thrust at me to prove I was wrong. Oh well.
The locks have all been for us today but we've been on our own, since mooring about 5 boats have gone past and none towards us, so I suspect tomorrow might be different. One of the boats was a wide beam, announcing itself to be the Cinema Boat. It looked amazing and we hope to catch up with it for a show at some point. We need to check their itinerary on line.
The Navigation is a lot easier than last time, when we had extremely high water pouring towards us, we did the trip today in 30minutes less than then for exactly the same distance last time.
Off to cook a fish pie now!
Oh and incidentally there were 3 Mandarin ducks here when we arrived, a mum and two youngsters, that's about it for today.

15th June '15

Well we're moored in our usual spot by the back of the Gaol at Reading!
Have had a day filled with wildlife spottings!
We saw a cuckoo; lots of proper geese; lots of crested grebes, including a baby diving alongside a parent (very sweet); a grass snake swimming in the river and some hooter geese ( they look as if they're wearing glasses!).
We've spotted several places we fancy mooring and getting a closer look at, and so we want to spend a bit longer going upstream. We've pretty much decided we won't go on down to London as it would simply be a rush and we've got down here so quickly we want to savour the journey back.
So far we've got Jess and Ju coming for a weekend, and Jan and Rog visiting us at Bradford on Avon. Hopefully some others will come and find us somewhere or another! No help as yet offered for Caen Locks but I live in hope!
We've found Dave and Sharon but they are going to wait here a few days so we shall be off tomorrow and hope the going is a bit easier than last time! No more white water rafting I hope.

14th June '15

I'm getting to hate this iPad! I just can't get the blog to work. Despite my best efforts I can't add photos and now it's lost 20 minutes of post and I'm starting again.....grrrrrrr.
We spent 3 days at Oxford. Arriving and mooring one boat away from Free Spirit, I got us a very late lunch, hung all my washing out (bliss) and then went into town on my own and had a good mooch around, buying some new t shirts in the bargain. That evening we went out with Allison and Dave, to the same pub we went to 2 years ago. Excellent food, company and conversation! On the way home, john and Dave spotted a rat near some bins, John exclaimed "a rat!" And a bloke going past said, "yes it was". Said chap was Will Gompertz! How's about that?
Friday we just hung around, doing very little. Saturday we were going to head out, but the weather was so horrible we stayed put.
Today after a bleak start the weather brightened up considerably. The Thames is as lovely as ever. I remembered how worried I was last time and compared it to the excitement I felt this time.
I'd forgotten how much faster you travel on the river, and we made good time, coupled with having staff at all the locks, makes it all so lovely. We've even seen a lot of 'proper' geese. Still way too many Canada's, I feel real violence towards them, but it's nice to see native ones hanging in there.
We are moored above Days Lock and Paddy thinks he's died and gone to heaven. He was able to run around with no lead in long grass. At one point he ran through the boat, up the back and around to do it again! Just like a child! He's shattered now!
The weather clouded over again, but no rain is forecast. We hope to be at Reading tomorrow. The final cherry on the cake was hearing a cuckoo after we moored! The last time I heard one was on the Kennett and Avon 2 years ago, must be just up country they're not around any more.
Sorry about lack of pictures, any advise would be very welcome!

10th June continued.

For some reason it all went square shaped and I couldn't delete the last sentence or two so please ignore the second Barby bit that went in the wrong place!
8th June. We got as far as Cropready and decided to go out for a meal to celebrate a week on the cut! Went to the Brasenose and had a superb meal and met a lovely couple of boaters, Peter and Sue, who we chatted with across our tables! They were going up and we're going down so we we're not likely to see them again this trip, but a lovely couple on nb Blue Jacket.
9th June. Weather turned really cold today and we were bundled up again after being in shorts and strappy t-shirts ( well me not John) for days. We stopped at Banbury( one of my favourite places) as I needed to get some fabric to line a bag I'm making. I've got into patchwork since I was last on here in a big way. We headed off for a few more miles and moored above Kings Sutton lock where Paddy could have a good run. Lovely little lock cottage there for sale.....nearly half a million! Who has all this money? It was so cold during the evening that we put the heating on.....its June for goodness sake!
10th. June, today. Weather started cold but improved although there was a nasty wind, matched with some awkward lock angles and some very shallow patches, made for an interesting day. We're moored just below Pigeons Lock. The towpath is terrible on the Oxford, in places it's completely overgrown and along from here most of it seems to have fallen in the canal! No wonder it's so shallow!

I don't seem to be able to access my photos, so I'll have to look into that but at least I can satisfy my need to record our journey!

10th June '15

Hooray! I've got my Google accounts sorted out and ( for today at least) I'm able to get onto the blog!
Well those who follow me on Facebook will know that we are currently on the South Oxford and hope to be in Oxford tomorrow.
We've had a great trip so far....précis as follows.
2nd June. Set out on a cold and windy day and braved the river section at Wychnor and moored at Alrewas. We had a beautiful Indian take away that night to celebrate the start of the trip.
3rd June.  Had a relatively easy trip through Fradley ( I managed not to fall in) and the only tricky bit was a boat coming out of the Coventry going south and so I had to do a bit of a wriggle to get around and through the little swing bridge. We moored at Hopwas that night.
4th June. Shortly after leaving we were flagged down by a young girl who asked if we could tow them as their gear box had packed up. We'd never towed and they'd only just bought the boat so it was a new experience! We got them to a wide section just before Fazeley where they were collected by someone from Streethay Wharf where they were towed back to for repairs. When we were making our farewells they explained that they did pet portraits and wanted to paint Paddy as a thank you. How lovely was that! After leaving them we moored at Fazeley opposite Peels Wharf, that place has changed beyond recognition. It's really lovely now.
5th June. Our Roberts birthday! Glascote locks were fine, extremely slow to fill as usual. John disappeared with the guy who lives in the cottage there to see his brick collection. How come I miss all the fun? We went on to get up the Atherstone locks as well and moored at the top. Amazingly most of them were set for us, very unusual. That night I took Paddy out for a late walk and found two youth Aussie guys coming up the top lock. They'd left Birmingham that morning, and were on a mission to get to London as one of them was going to live on the boat with his wife. They didn't seem to know much (anything) about boats but they were lovely!
6th June. The weather had been improving every day, and it was lovely again. We got through Nuneaton and around Hawkesbury Junction, which was the first time we'd really seen many other boats, but Hawkesbury was busy. We moored out in the middle of nowhere that night and thought about a bbq. Then it clouded over so we didn't. Naturally it brightened up after we'd eaten. During the afternoon we had a bit of an incident when a golf ball came flying across and hit the roof of the boat. A few more feet and it could have been one of us. Very shaken by it. We saw a lovely mooring for sale, but when we rang about it they wanted £96,000 for it so maybe not! Moored by bridge 79!
7th June. We stopped at Braunston for water, and a duck decided to jump on board. She stayed all the time we were waiting and negotiating the junction. Eventually she jumped off and a boater told us she does that all day! Paddy was not impressed.We went past Barby Wharf and saw a lovely mooring for sale. We rang and went off the idea when they said they wanted £96,000 for it! That is not a typo.....

I've not added anything to this for 2 main reasons,
1. we haven't been out on the boat this year
2. I tried to put some stuff on with my ipad and couldn't load pictures

so... I've got my old laptop out of retirement to see if it works, here goes...

We had a trip to Canada this May and much to the locals surprise they had a late snowfall, much to our delight! It was like being in the middle of a Christmas card!

We stayed at Banff and this was the view as we were going up the cablecar to the top of Sulphur mountain. The views were unbelievable from the top and the sun came out and clouds kept skidding across the sky, quite magical.

We saw lots of wildlife and this one one of the first eagles we saw - I ended up getting quite bored with them after a while - just another eagle! yawn, yawn. Same with ospreys! sad but true, now back on the marina surrounded by wretched Canada geese (which we saw few of in Canada, they're all over here) I'd love to see an eagle, highly unlikely I suspect.

after nearly a week of staying in Banff and then Jasper we boarded the Rocky Mountaineer and here we are waiting to board it. I have to say this was an amazing experience and if you have an opportunity to do it then GO FOR IT - and do the gold - it's really worth every penny. The service was outstanding and the views were out of this world.

 

This is from the inside of the observation car that we travelled in and you can see the front of the train as it curves around a corner! you also get a glimpse of the countryside!

as we approached Vancouver we saw the logs being loaded down the river - such an iconic sight!

a bit dim because it was evening, but this is Vancouver from our hotel window. Vancouver was lovely - a really nice city and the positioning of the hotel was ideal. no more than 10 minutes from the harbour, 2 minutes from the bus stop, over the road from a mall and the shops were right there!

From Vancouver we caught a boat - the Zuiderdamm - to travel through the Inside Passage up to Alaska (it really was the holiday of a lifetime). Here is the harbour just as we were about to depart! We had a room with a balcony which was wonderful - very extravagant, but we got to the point when we'd spent that much what did a bit more matter?

an 'artistic' view through one of the outside openings on the boat of one of the many islands we passed on our way.

standing on the stern of the boat watching the wake and suddenly realising that it was wider than our boat is long! Strange but true (both us thinking it and the fact! well I know what I mean!)

First stop was Juneaux, and this is our boat in harbour! quite a size. Don't the mountains look lovely in the background? I'm pleased I'm doing this it's bringing it all back to me!

We went with our good friends Susan and Malcolm and here are John and Susan coming out of the Saloon. It was wonderful inside with all manner of memorabilia and items of interest (some somewhat dubious) attached to the walls and ceilings. It was packed and the floor was covered in sawdust and the serving wenches were all dressed in appropriate attire. It had come highly recommended and was worth a visit.

The architecture was all very what you'd expect it to be. Lots of wood and looking as if it's straight out of an old western. The sidewalks were all wooden and the background scenery was beautiful. This is Skagway, the most northern town we visited. We took a trip on a minibus up into the mountains to see the trail that the old gold-diggers used in the Ukon gold rush that used this town as it's starting point. There are some wonderful tales to be told and the conditions they had to live in were barbaric. So many died and when you see where they had to travel and what they had to carry, you can understand why.

This is looking over the White Pass that now had a rail track but in the gold rush years (1897/98) they had to walk up here on a track barely visible below it, this in the snow carrying 1 ton of supplies each in relay. They weren't allowed to start off without enough clothes, food, building supplies etc to last a year as there were no shops or opportunities to get anything once they'd left Vancouver to travel up the coast.

The snow was starting to melt during our stay and his was one of many waterfalls taking the melt down the mountains to join the rivers and sea. Some were amazing and really needed a video to capture the incredible height of them reaching from high precipices and tumbling down the rockfaces.

the highlight of the whole trip for me was Glacier Bay. Here you can see the exact moment when a chunk of ice falls after thousands of years, into the sea. The scope of the place is not something that you can capture on a camera. We were well out to sea and this glacier face was huge. The noises coming off the glacier were really moving. You could hear grindings and moanings as it slowly ate it's way through the rock and then as it starts to break up, you hear occasional sounds like pistol shots and then, if you're lucky you see the ice fall. I stayed watching it for 30 minutes on my own on our balcony and have to admit to crying at the beauty of it all.

I have more but must get on and do something now. I promise I'll get back and put some more on in the near future, but at least you know we're still alive and well.