Tuesday Evening, 28th April, Wargrave Meadow
Before leaving Marlow, we needed to visit a charity shop, as we had a bag of paperback books to donate. Whilst looking around, we saw a Marks and Spencer food store - Myra had one of their 'Bags for Life' that required replacing, it was duly done.
I took a closer look at the suspension bridge. It was was opened in September 1832; designed by William Tierney Clarke, FRS, MICE who had worked under both Thomas Telford and John Rennie. He also designed the original Norfolk suspension bridge across the River Adur at Shoreham By Sea, where I lived from 1947 until 1965.
I was walking back from the bridge when I saw one of the Google Street view camera cars. Interestingly, this car was displaying no markings or advertisements; perhaps they have been having more problems with people blocking roads to prevent access.
The Sun was shining as we left our mooring spot, we went up through two locks and we had a long chat with some people out for a walk above Hurley lock. I was chatting to a retired RAF pilot. He had trained on Tiger Moths and Harvards; he then flew Meteors and Canberras. A very pleasant and interesting gentleman; I could have listened to him all day, but we had to carry on as are meeting two of our grandchildren at Abingdon on Saturday morning.
Approaching Medmendham, we saw a lot of Kites soaring about. As we approached, they were swooping down and landing on newly turned earth behind two tractors and their ploughs. We had never seen so many Kites together; we lost count at 30, they could have been as many as 50. They were beautiful; mostly Red Kites with a few Black ones in amongst them.
We had Henley Reach to ourselves and enjoyed the buildings and boats as we approached the town; some nicely kept slipper launches and skiffs. There was a Cornish Crabber moored close to the bridge, I do like them!
Passing through Henley and arriving at Marsh lock, we chatted to Lawrence, the lock keeper. We were only the 5th boat that he had penned through today. He wondered where they have all gone as he knew that most of the hire fleets are almost fully booked up.
We tied up at wargrave Marsh, on one of our favourite places and enjoyed the last of the sunshine as grey clouds were building up. A Mandarin Duck swam past producing a splash of colour.
Sorry, no photos today, Blogger reports internal server error. I will try again tomorrow morning.
2009 Totals – Locks 121; Miles 154; Bus pass uses 2.
