We’ve really enjoyed spending time in and around Windsor. We had an unexpectedly social day on Sunday, having decided to go to St Peters & St Andrews Church, Old Windsor, because they were celebrating harvest festival, fortuitously followed by a bring and share lunch, to which we were warmly welcomed. There was a lot of cake! In the afternoon the church was holding a fund raising concert with a young Venezuelan opera singer, accompanied by her partner on the piano, who entertained us with songs such as ‘Don’t put your daughter on the stage Mrs Worthington’ and other pieces from all over the world. It was a magical hour of music. There followed more cake and bubbly. A good thing that between the lunch and the concert we walked a section of the Thames path!
First thing Monday we moved the boat to Datchet and were joined early afternoon by four friends who had parked a car in Windsor and then taken a five minute train journey to join us, which then took them an hour to return to by boat! The weather was unusually sunny and warm for this time of year, so we extended the boat trip further up the river, eventually returning to a mooring spot outside the Windsor leisure centre. I anticipated a quick swim followed by a luxurious shower but first we walked with our friends back to their car and discovered how far from the town centre we actually were moored, so once they had gone we moved the boat centrally and the swim never happened! A bridge, no longer open to traffic, separates Eton from Windsor and as we were moored a stones throw from it, the first evening we wandered around Eton, marvelling at the sang froid of the school boys who have to wear such an archaic uniform. Eton itself seems very quaint and quiet compared to the hustle and bustle of tourists flocking Windsor to see the castle and the changing of the guard. Tuesday morning we found ourselves behaving like grockles ourselves, even faintly disappointed that there were no entry tickets available to the Castle. We did however go to the Royal Theatre in the evening to see Blood Brothers. Having no idea of the storyline beforehand, I found myself unexpectedly choked with emotion as I thought it was going to be a light hearted musical!
Today the weather has broken, unsurprising as I heard rain lightly falling throughout most of the night. From about 5am the noise that the geese made outside our boat was comparable to the noisiest of car traffic – I didn’t get much of a lie-in. The mess on our boat also testifies to how many of them flocked around us. It is no easy feat removing guano from the fabric of our outside covers!
The early rise enabled us to get moving, initially through constant drizzle. No such thing as bad weather – we donned our waterproofs and were grateful that it was windless. Six hours, 5 big Thames locks later, we arrived in Marlow, faintly shattered from such a long day’s cruising, constantly on our feet. We have become very soft, usually only journeying a maximum of three hours every other day! We decided to do a full days cruising as the forecast for tomorrow is inclement and as we plan to meet up with an old childhood friend of mine, who lives near Henley, we needed to break the back of the journey today.
We have inadvertently become a river rescue service! Shortly before the lock at Marlow we passed a motor cruiser, in itself a surprise as they can travel far quicker than we can! It was obvious they were in need of assistance because of the tied on engine at the stern and a guy balanced on a bit of plyboard, chugging the boat along whilst another man was at the helm. They smiled and said they were OK, just having to go very slowly. Having waited at Marlow lock for them to join us, we realised the weir currents proved very problematic for them. On the lock side was another man who turned out to be the owner of the beleaguered boat. We offered to tow the boat into Marlow as there was another weir en route, which might also prove tricky for them. The long and the short of it is that we are now going to tow them to their destination, Pangbourne, because we are headed there in any event, our timing just might have been a bit slower.
Lord Toad, as he is known to his friends, the owner of the cruiser is a boat builder. He has just won a tender to buy and restore an old boat owned by one of the Oxford colleges that is in a terrible state of disrepair. Nine other boat builders were declined in favour of him and once restored he has plans to use it as a community facility. It even has a stage, so it will be ideal for school theatre productions. The boat itself has a cement hull and weighs nearly 60 tonnes. Of the twenty three that were made for Oxford Colleges, only five or six survive – the rest have rotted away. ‘Lord Toad’ will be joining us tomorrow as we tow his boat. Meanwhile, the other two guys can be released from their rather onerous task of moving the boat along the river at a snails pace!
NarrowboatTLC 