Many Meetings: Finally, We Caught Up with Angela and Stuart.

Tuesday 3rd and Wednesday 4th August 2021 to Abingdon.

Tuesday was a short day's cruising as we only got back to MM from home at lunchtime.

It was lovely, though, to be travelling in sunshine again and at teatime we arrived at "Wallingford-by-Sea", judging by the crowds at the "beach".

It is a lovely town and we just managed to squeeze in to what seemed to be the last free mooring.

The early morning sunshine picked out the church spire.

Wallingford has a Waitrose! So we set off early and walked up to the attractive town square. M went and waited outside Waitrose until they opened at 8:00am while R went for a Costa.

The Waitrose fish counter was an impressive display. What looks like conger eels is, in fact, a pair of salmon! M bought two whole rainbow trout, one of our favourite suppers.

Finally at Benson Lock, R was able to purchase a Thames licence - at last - after ten days of trying! Either the locks were unmanned or they didn't have a card machine and couldn't take cash!

The lady lockkeeper was crouching down as she had just been suprised by a large spider on her lock controls. R rescued her by rescuing the spider!

North of Day's Lock it looks as if two large marinas are being dug out parallel to the river. Large water-filled holes being dug by diggers and lots of trucks carting away the spoil. Incidentally, Day's Lock is the home of the World Annual Poohsticks Competition!

Many of the houses on this stretch of the Thames are huge. This is just one of the larger ones!

The approach to Abingdon is lovely. The popular moorings before the bridge were all taken but there was plenty of space beyond the bridge and, in many ways, the moorings there are more nicely situated as they look over a large area of parkland.

We had caught up with Angela and Stuart on their two boats just after Culham Lock and they moored up just beyond MM - with some difficulty but lots of help!