Could it get better?

Well I do not really have much to say today, Just taken away by all of the beauty this place has. Could not be possible to be feeling more chilled out right now. Just moored up in gorgeous Abingdon and the sun is shining on us. We are about to go to the pub for dinner which is just down stream and in the picture.

Love the upper Thames, and cruising!!! And I loved the rain/hail/sleet we got today.

Enjoy the pictures

This lock took 20 minutes to fill, so we had to wait a while

This may look a bit funny but it is a really comfortable position and you can steer really easy with your legs.

And this is our stunning mooring for the evening. gorgeous weather and barely anyone on the river. I think we passed two boats today.

Day 3 on the Thames

We woke up in Henley this morning to a beautiful sunny day. There was frost on the fore deck and it was very quiet even this close to town. The boat had not come to collect their mooring fees, oh well we had to go.

The cruise today was again stunning with lots of gorgeous scene's which gradually appeared into view as we motored up the meandering river. After Marsh lock there is a special little stretch with a row of amazing house's which appears after a maze of wild islands. The next lock which is called Shiplake was my favourite lock. It is a very pretty and well maintained lock with rolling hills in the distance and a colourful welcoming willow overhanging the river.

The river is very lush at the moment and we are lucky to not have much traffic at all.

Today as we were enjoying the scenery a small arched bridge appeared before us. Sonning bridge it is and we soon discovered that it had a powerful fast flowing weir stream cutting across the path you must take. The arch we needed to aim for suddenly became very difficult to line up for. I needed to step on the power and get back on course. It was a relief to come out of the powerful cross stream and snap back on course just as we entered the archway.

And we are now moored up for the night and just about to have a nice dinner.

De Kleine Aukje day 2

Kate and I woke to a beautiful symphony of wild birds calling. No wonder these special islands are one of Kate's favourite places. We had a lovely night sleep and a relaxing sleep in followed by a delicious scrambled egg breakfast. I cracked on with some work on the cockpit whilst Kate studied the Thames river map. I had a quick scrub of the hull which only slightly annoyed the nesting Canadian geese.

The cruise from Cliveden Reach heading upriver to Henley-on-Thames passes through Marlow. This cruise starts off in a very untouched place with steep wooded hills on one side and lovely little islands scattered around the river. The locks are all very pretty and the scenery slowly becomes more rural. Most of the house's by the river are stunning! Passing through Marlow is very special and I wish we had time to stop at more places. Marlow looks gorgeous from the river, a very pretty little town.

Arriving at Henley-on-Thames we found a very easy, perfectly placed mooring for the night. Moored just down river of the stone, arched Henley bridge and opposite a row of eight gorgeous old boat house's. After a little shop and a snack we are now enjoying a nice glass of wine whilst watching the had working rower's and listening to some chilled out music.

Today passed mostly uneventful from mishaps. One narrow boat tried to overtake us as we were about to enter a tricky lock. He got pretty close about one metre away which distracted me enough to ruin my planned nice and easy, smooth entrance into the lock. We bounced off the lock from Kate's perfectly placed fenders and I poled Aukje back into position. I don't know what they were thinking! Poor seamanship award, for sure. Some people think it is a race into the lock.

We learnt that there are a lot of locks with fast flowing weir streams directly in front. These can be tricky and definitely need to be spotted in advance as they could catch you and send you quickly off course. The river is still flowing rather quickly which is described as yellow boards, but the rate of flow is expected to decrease.

De Kleine Aukje Day 1

Kate's beautiful Dutch barge, De Kleine Aukje, is now for sale. HERE 
It was a hard decision to make because Kate is very fond of her barge. We have just started what may be our last adventure on her. We set off this morning and we are going to have nearly two weeks of cruising up the non-tidal Thames and back.

We had a really lovely cruise today. The weather was quite bizarre with a little show of snow, hail and sleet. There was a cold northerly wind with some warm sunny breaks. Kate's mother joined us, with her two Dutch friends, up to Romney lock where they left us. We stopped further on and had lunch with our friend Phill and his lovely dog.

A few times we almost hit the lock side, but Kate's amazing ability to chuck a fender avoided a bump. The flow of the river was quite fast and the wind wanted to shift the barge around a bit in the close manoeuvres. Bray Lock's weir stream was especially tricky, but going slowly and watching the flow saved us from any embarrassment.

We are now stopped for the night at the gorgeous islands on Cliveden Reach and have had a lovely romantic dinner.