Our journey south to the IWA National Campaign Rally at Brookwood (Basingstoke Canal)

(Sorry, no pictures until we find a faster data connection)

17th May – Beale Park to Sonning Lock. Washing machine playing silly-billies. Its time to find out why the mains breaker trips when the washing machine starts up. Meanwhile plenty to see such as fields of Llamas, black ones and white ones. Wonder what they taste like. Stopped at Reading Marina for bottle of gas, paid £15.99 and although this is not the most expensive how come they only pay a fiver in Cyprus? Late morning saw us shopping in Tesco. Left the boat outside. Couldn’t get the trolley to the landing stage so abandoned any plans to throw it in the river.

18th May – Henley. Good job the brass was clean and shiny, wouldn’t want to lower their standards.
Arrived at Marlow in time to visit the shops. Good hardware shop here. There are first and second class moorings in Marlow, first class has a repaired, smooth edge to the river bank and somewhere to tie a rope and charges for the privilege.

19th – 20th May. Bourne End, Maidenhead, Eton, Windsor, Runnymede, Staines and Chertsey Meads – our last stop on the Thames.
The flag was flying on Windsor Castle so we waved towards Her Majesty. We’re used to seeing “No Mooring” signs on the Thames so it wasn’t a surprise to see “Crown Estates, don’t even think about it” signs all along the castle’s river bank. The best one we saw said “Sorry, no mooring please”. So polite.

We treated ourselves to a meal at “The Cyprus Donkey” a Cypriot “meze” restaurant just 2 minutes from the Thames at Runnymede. We literally fell off the boat into the restaurant at the other end of a footpath between the houses. Haven’t a clue how you get there by road but by river you land at the free 24 hour EA moorings before Egham. Excellent food, excellent service and surroundings and wicked prices.

21st May – Our grand entrance to the River Wey or Wey Navigation as it likes to be known since 1653. Friendly lock keeper, he did all the winding and opening stuff while we hung on to ropes. Out the other side and off to explore National Trust country.
After the “Can use our canal” at the entrance to the Wey we encountered the “Can’t do that”.

Can’t catch fish, can’t moor near the bank, can’t pass other boats without running aground, can’t use a normal windlass, can’t see the sun (the worst rain since our records began a month ago) and worst of all can’t use the facilities at Pyrford Marina on a Tuesday because it’s their day off. But many, many thanks to the manager who, still in his night clothes, supplied a pump-out token which enabled us to empty the waste tank just so we can fill it again over the weekend.
Now all we have to do is sit tight (no reference to the empty waste tank) and wait for the green light to enter the …… (drum roll here) ….. Basingstoke Canal.

Looking forward to meeting friends and family at the Boat Rally (amongst them - Roger and Babs, Roger, Richard and Liz,