Egham or bust
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We have been struggling to get out for a trip recently but decided that we could fit in a quick trip to Egham and maybe later on go upstream towards Oxford, so we set off towards Maidenhead aiming to stop near the Brunel bridge for the first night.
It really is just beautiful being out on the river at the moment. The days are mostly sunny although it is getting quite chilly. Luckily for me, Nicki is the one who has to stand out in the cold to do the ropes and operate the locks which are generally unmanned at this time of year – although to be fair, quite often a lock keeper does suddenly appear to help out. The river is so quiet that if we encounter more than three boats in a day we start getting a bit stressed! (Not really, but it definitely makes it much more relaxed, and it also makes it really easy to find moorings which greatly enhances the experience).
Cookham Lock Cut is interesting/challenging because of a very low footbridge, and on our first day of the outward journey we got through with just a few inches to spare. Having navigated safely under, we continued on to Maidenhead to moor up for the night – it was not quite so simple this time as we had some difficulty getting close to the bank and I even felt stones going through the thruster, but we took it easy and stood off from the bank a bit near the stern. That said, the mooring area is a lovely stretch with a nice access and grassy area for the dogs. For the first time since embarking on this life-style we began to feel that maybe we are not really that suited to this lifestyle – we both managed to slip and scrape our shins during our stop over! Still, we survived and lived another day.
Next day we passed through Bray lock, and it was here that the lock keeper advised there had been a problem somewhere in the upstream locks in the last day or so and that the water levels had dropped by six inches. I had not noticed this but it did explain why we seemed to have difficulty at the Maidenhead mooring the previous day.
This little old man always seems to be watching us as we pass by but he never gives us a cheery wave, possibly because he isn’t real. What an incredible garden feature to have!
Continuing on, we arrived at the Environmental Agency Moorings on the Egham towpath, and easily found a mooring for the night. Once established we gave the dogs a quick walk along the towpath before settling down for the night. In the morning we moved on along the river a short distance to moor up nearby the Magna Carta memorial so that we could combine a stroll along the riverbank to give the dogs a really good run, along with a visit to the memorial and a walk up to the JFK memorial which was erected on an acre of land gifted to the Americans by the Queen and is the only piece of US-owned land in England. Of course, this was all followed by a cuppa and treat in the local NT cafe, before returning to the boat and setting off again.
From here we sailed on to Boveney for the night, mooring up next to the Olympic rowing lakes (in the morning Nicki found that we were actually moored right outside of a boathouse named Andrews Boathouse, obviously this is to be our ‘spot’ for future visits). This turned out to be a really good mooring for us, just the right height for getting on and off, with nice walks along the towpath. Further along we found a pretty little church which belonged to the Friends of the Friendless Churches – we’ve never heard of them before, but it sounds such a sad title for an old church doesn’t it.
Overnight mooring at Boveney
From Boveney we headed back to Marlow. At Cookham Lock we got chatting to the lock keeper again, and this time he began talking about the water levels getting messed up. It took me a few seconds to realise he was saying that the water here was six inches higher now and not lower, and of course this meant that the ‘very low’ footbridge we had passed under on our way down might be an even bigger challenge going upstream. Fortunately he said that if I was struggling then he could open the sluices in the lock to reduce the water level in the cut. With this in mind I approached the bridge extremely slowly and sure enough, the bow flag, which is a few inches higher than the wheelhouse, was fractionally too tall to go under the bridge. As promised, the lock keeper drained some water out and we gingerly moved forward, breathing a sigh of relief when we had actually made it safely out the other side.
As you can see from the following two pictures, there was about an inch clearance (if that) but we got through and the wheelhouse went through without a hitch.
Next stop, Marlow and we moored up at Higginsons Park for a while to do some shopping and gave the dogs a wee-break.
Once back on board we got going, turning on our Christmas lights for maximum effect whilst on the move. Although not that late, it was starting to get dark so we did the last stretch with the navigation lights on and finished off the trip with a pump out at the marina. The pump out station is due to shut down for the winter in a few days but hopefully we will now be OK till it re-opens in March.
And so, back to base and a well-earned rest ….. we survived to sail another day.
