And the rain came down in torrents….
I don’t think we have ever been caught in quite such a squall, with thunder and lightening to boot! Fortunately we were in our last lock of the day as the heavens opened, and we moored on the lock moorings to feel safe. We were headed to friends less than half an hour from the lock. I’d just told K we were on our way…… best laid plans and all that. You can’t fight the weather, especially on a wide river. We had started the day in rain, and were grateful for a dry spell early afternoon.
We’ve just come from Wallingford and maybe from these pictures you can identify a well know murder mystery that bases itself around this town!
It wasn’t quite as exciting as I thought it would be, but it did have a Waitrose! And the day before we’d stayed at Goring, which has one of the poshest delis I have ever seen, next to one of the most basic convenience stores. The contrast was striking. Walking around Goring, I would hedge a bet that none of the houses are cheap to buy, with its close proximity to London and Reading and it’s picturesque view of the river. We went to a mid week communion service in the very beautiful parish church, where we were made to feel very welcome and it was lucky that I got onto first name terms with the vicar because shortly after leaving Goring R discovered he’d mislaid yet another set of glasses. I sent a message to the parish office and the vicar kindly rang to say he couldn’t find them. By then R told me he’d had them in the convenience store when he went to buy a pint of milk after church (I meanwhile was drooling in the deli!) So I mentioned this to the vicar who kindly went and found them there! We shall pick them up on our return journey, as long as we remember!
The start of the week was momentous in that we finally, after nearly 11 months left the K&A but not before we discovered the delights of the Reading Lido. On Sunday we planned to get onto the Thames but we saw a mooring in the town centre, (we feel it should be a city but it doesn’t have a cathedral?) near to the Abbey ruins. Stopping to have a brief look at the old part of Reading we decided it was worth an overnight stop and then I also realised how close it was to the lido, which I had wanted to visit last October. I was disappointed, when trying to book online, that the first ‘swim only’ availability was on Tuesday, but when I then looked at the swim and breakfast package, we could book in for 0830 Monday morning. What a treat! The outdoor lido was refreshingly cool, but not cold and then there was a hot tub, a sauna and a steam room to relax in. We were able to have a plesant shower and then the most delicious breakfast. To anyone reading this, who lives near Reading, I thoroughly recommend!
Having travelled on Sunday morning we decided to see if any of the Reading churches had an evening service and we were not disappointed. We found a lively church called Greyfriars with a full on worship band and a large young congregation. En route back to the boat we came across a ‘beach bar’ complete with deck chairs and sand, with a view of the river which runs through the town.
We enjoyed visiting the Abbey ruins and seeing various sculptures. My only precis knowledge of Reading was the train station, John Lewis and Costco!
The Thames is certainly a beautiful river and we enjoyed a peaceful cruise to Pangbourne on Monday, where we moored up on the same bank as last year, even passing the ex university boat that our friend, Lord Toad, had purchased to renovate and alongside was his motor cruiser that we had rescued on the river! Arriving in Pangbourne I contacted a lady I had met on our previous visit, who kindly invited us to supper, which was very welcome. Listening to their life story was inspirational. So much of what they had done was faith based and it encouraged us to see how much God had influenced their life and the decisions they made, resulting in them really seeing him at work.
A night at Goring followed by a night at Wallingford and a stop en route at Benson to meet a friend for an early lunch. I had thought we might moor at Benson if Goring had been full. Thank goodness we didn’t – arriving at Benson the only mooring was for super yachts and they weren’t parallel to the towpath! We found a couple of posts to moor up against but it was perilous and quite difficult to disembark! It was worth it for the company and the coffee!
And then on to where our friends live where the local farmer has given us permission to moor on his land. That in itself was a challenge as we didn’t quite realise where the mooring was and we ended up stuck on the mud and it took quite an effort on R’s part to push us out. Then he had to almost climb into a tree to fix the mooring rope! Eventually when we felt the boat was secure, we gathered our dirty laundry and gratefully made use of our friends’ mod cons, including a much needed bath to warm us up, thankful for their kindness and generosity!
NarrowboatTLC 