Saturday 8th September in Reading.
A pretty sunrise. M, who was sat with her first cup of tea, glanced out of the window to see a kingfisher perched on a fallen branch in the middle of the canal/river right beside her. Sadly, it flew off before she could get to her camera.
A lovely juxtaposition of the open swing bridge, a bench for walkers and a footpath calling to M to follow it.
Garston turf-sided lock with its defensive pill box. Pearson's, the famous, erudite and amusing canal guide book, speculates that perhaps the pill box may be there to protect the lock from "that Fifth Columnist called progress". We can only hope! It certainly appears to be on the lookout!
As this part of the canal is actually the River Kennet, there is a strong flow of water forming an impressive waterfall over the top gates.
At Fobney Lock, R stopped to remove a pair of boxer shorts (Calvin Klein, no less!) and sports shorts from MM's propellor. Clearly someone had been skinny dipping nearby. Whoopee!!!
Work in progress? One way of saving on mooring fees is to put your narrow boat in your small back garden on the outskirts of Reading. Might be a bit tricky to get it down into the water?
County Lock is the last lock before Reading town centre and we were lucky enough to find another boat just about to leave it ready for us.
The River Kennet runs through the centre of the Oracle shopping centre in a narrow, twisty channel that can be fast running, so there is a one way system with traffic lights.
The Oracle was very busy on a Saturday afternoon. Fabulous to cruise through the centre with everyone waving. M said that it made her feel very regal waving back!
One of our favourite moorings - the Chestnut Walk beside Reading Gaol, otherwise known as the Oscar Wilde Walk after his incarceration therein. Such a quiet place to moor yet just five minutes walk from the centre of town.
One of the two hire boats behind us appeared to be sporting a rather inebriated inflatable horse.
We had seen that there was a Wagamamas in the Oracle on our way through, so we decided to treat ourselves to dinner there this evening. Very good it was too, as ever.
Since we were here six years ago, the ruins of Reading Abbey (apparently it was one of the largest in the country) have been re-opened to the public. Tonight, however, it was closed for a rock concert and, as it is only a few yards form our mooring, we got to hear the (loud) music for free. So, for a few hours, the mooring was not as quiet as normal - but we got our own back by watching the Last Night of the Proms, which generally managed to drown out the rock concert - and was hugely enjoyable to boot.
Today: 8 miles, 8 locks and 5.1 hours.
Trip: 256 miles, 174 locks and 182.7 hours.
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