On to Goring-on-Thames

Friday 14^th October, 2011

An early start again. Culham Lock, on “self-service” (i.e. too early for the lock-keeper), showed only one red light (to show the sluices were closed) and none of the controls would work.  Robin called the EA number shown on the instructions; they took a message and said they would get back to him. By the time they did get back, the lock-keeper had arrived. He switched from ‘Public Power’ to their own power and opened the lock for us.

We moored just before Shillingford Bridge where we had breakfast (at 11:30).

We stopped just after Cleeve Lock, where we had lunch (and had been through with Penny and Harry that day on “Queen of Hearts”).  Lunch was some great prawns with a spicy chilli and ginger sauce. “Delicious” quoth Robin!!

We continued on to Goring where we moored up for the evening at 4:00pm. We walked into the village, found some twine for our crystals in the gift shop, then went into the Capture office and invited everyone to come down to the boat after work. Between 5:30 and 6:30, several did come and visit including Alison with her two sons, the elder with his short ‘trick’ canoe doing all sorts of acrobatics in the water to entertain us!  It was a lovely balmy evening for late October and we all shared a bottle of wine on the towpath – not enough room for us all to be on board at the same time!  We had an absolutely super evening when Abbie and Dave came to dinner, our first-ever dinner guests.

17 miles and 6 locks – 6.5 hours

Total 38 miles and 17 locks – 16.0 hours