Being Tim and Pru

A really mixed first full day on the Thames. It was absolutely freezing when we started off this morning even though we were not particularly early at 9.15 but I was wearing 5 layers a bobble hat and gloves, yet I'm now sitting here at 5.00pm moored up in a tee shirt and shorts with all doors and windows open to try to get some air through the boat.

We have done about 13 miles today and 4 locks only 2 of which were manned so the other two were self service. Mind you in theory they are a lot easier to operate than the canal locks but it can be a bit slow when your crew (Sarah aka Pru) tries to fill the lock with all paddles down. Anyway I cant shout too loudly (or at all!) as when I cast off to enter the lock I (aka Tim) had forgotten to untie the bow rope.

After those two incidents we decided it was perhaps time to moor up and have found an idilic spot just a couple of hundred yards on from Rushey Lock. The photos show you how rural it is but they don't covey how quiet it is. Not a sound, no traffic noise, no farm machinery, no aircraft, no railway, nothing - absolute bliss. The other huge bonus is the total lack of moving boats. Today during the whole day we have had one boat pass us whilst we have been moored but nothing during the whole of our journey.

We plan on getting to Lechlade tomorrow and explore it before turning round and heading for Reading and the start of the K & A

PS for any of you wondering about the reference to Tim and Pru its following a Channel 4 series with Timothy West and Prunella Scales on a narrowboat with some less than perfect boat handling incidents.

View from our mooring looking upstream

View from our mooring looking downstream

Topiary frog at Rushey Lock