Many Meetings: September and Soo Arrive Together.

Friday 1st September 2017 at Henley.
A lovely early morning in Goring, breasted up with another boat.

Breakfast at Pierreponts was a must - and as good as ever. Traditional boiled eggs and marmite soldiers - delicious! And the finest capuccino this side of Italy.

We have many happy memories of this place and it was wonderful to visit again and very pleasing to see that it continues to be just as successful under its new owners.

Caroline and Stuart, who used to own Pierreponts, have now opened an amazing delicatessen in the village, where Stuart continues to weave his culinary magic with Caroline's help - just look at Caroline's take on lemon curd tarts! (We bought three of these works of art and they tasted as good as they looked).

And their fruit and veg selection was eye-catching. "Bliss!", said M.

Back at the river, we let loose and waved goodbye to the crew of nb "Nattergal".

This stretch of the Thames is quite remote and very beautiful.

Our lovely friend Jon, who was the carpenter on MM, is now driving trains for GWR and must cross this bridge many times (as we have!).

We arrived in Reading just before one o'clock and R walked to the station to meet our friend Soo who is joining us for a few days. He spotted Soo coming down the escalator as he walked through the door. Perfect timing!
We moved MM on a bit further to where there are moorings outside a large Tesco store and Soo and R went in for a "few more bits". As they returned a small drama unfurled behind them involving the trip boat the "African Queen".

It seems that the huge "African Queen" was trying to get its nose close in to the bank to pick up two crew members. The boat hit a tree, ripping off a large branch which then fell on some of the passengers so, for a while, tempers were decidedly frayed. We watched the "entertainment" with amusement as the captain expressed his displeasure somewhat forcefully!

We arrived in lovely Henley as a hot air balloon drifted past.