Wednesday Evening, 29th April, Beale Park, Pangbourne
A cloudless blue sky and mist slowly rising above the water surface were the first sights to register in my mind this morning. What a way to start the day; we had a leisurely breakfast and prepared to move off. There was no point in an early start as the first lock, Shiplake, has not been converted to power, for user operation.
This would mean by hand, something like 120 turns of the wheel to raise the sluices, 120 turns to open the gates and then the same number to close them. The same number for the top gates; and same again to close. Now you can see why we chose to wait for the keeper to arrive at 9am.
It took us 20 minutes to get through the lock: 5 minutes for the lock operation and 15 minutes chatting to the relief keeper and the lock keeper. That, for us, is one of the pleasures of boating.
We saw our first Kingfisher of this trip above the lock; he sat in the reeds and watched us go by.
Myra made a good job of steering through the tricky bridge before Sonning lock; there is a strong cross flow from the old mill stream almost at right angles just before the bridge. People were watching; gloating was not allowed. As our friend Dave Griffiths would say ‘it is not big and it is not clever’
I dropped her off to go to Tesco at Caversham; I mentioned to a boater that I was going to get some diesel, its cheaper at the big marina was his advice. I did and the effect of a 60/40 split meant that the price per litre was £1.00. I will sit down sometime with my calculator and work out what that means in English.
Having boosted the profits of Tesco yet again, we arrived at Caversham lock to find it was set for user operation. The top gate set up was such that the sluice green flashing light would not stop flashing, allowing the gates to be opened, even although the water level had been made. We were waiting for the time interval to pass when a boater arrived who was going down the lock. He came up and promptly pushed one of the buttons, thus delaying the whole sequence further. What a wally.
I telephoned the EA local office and was told that Caversham lock is particularly slow on the top sluice light, but that it would eventually stop flashing. I suggested (politely) that a notice to that effect on the panel would be a good idea.
We were intending to tie up at Beale Park, above Pangbourne: Whitchurch lock was the last one for us today. Immediately before the lock is Whitchurch Toll Bridge, one of two remaining on the Thames; the other being at Eynsham, near Oxford. There has been a toll bridge at Whitchurch since 1792: the present one was completed early in 1902, designed by Joseph Morris and built by the Cleveland Engineering and Bridge company.
2009 Totals – Locks 126; Miles 168; Bus pass uses 2.
