And so to Beale Park....

I have now safely arrived at Beale Park which will be my 'home' for the next 3 weeks.

Up early this morning and had my shopping done by 8 a.m.! Then it was time for a Tesco 'big breakfast', 8 items and an orange juice for £4. I definitely will not be needing lunch today!

As I left Tesco's mooring nb SANITY AGAIN, with Sheila and Bruce pulled in and took over my spot. Then it was up to Better Boating for a bit more diesel at 80/20 split. Caversham Lock was my first ever river lock to be cruised solo - I had previously managed narrow and wide locks solo, but never a river lock. All went well and I was on my way up to Mapledurham, here I had to hover above the lock, with the wind blowing, waiting for the jetty to clear so I could get in to take on water, pump out the loo and dump the rubbish. Whoever designed the location of these facilities is obviously not a boater - they are far too close to the lock and create many problems!

Whitchurch Lock came and went, and then the approach to Beale Park - so many boats here already and lots of 'old' faces to meet again. Then it was time for coffee with Sandy (nb JACARANDA) and blue Sheila, (n.b. FAIR'FA) with her new name RACQUET!! She and Sandy's other right hand helper (sorry - I forgot your name!! from nb BRIAR ROSE - I know your husband is GEOFF - I even know your car!!!) are now to be known as UNHINGED and RACQUET!!

A walk round the site - it is surprising how much equipment has already arrived. TARDIS was there (our trailer that stores so much equipment hence it's name) and the tea tent was already erected and the Carpenters workshop marquee was in the process of being erected.

Then it was back to the boat to set up my 'office'. Our real office does not arrive until Monday and until we get electricity in it we cannot start to use it... Tomorrow morning at 0900 hrs is the Elf'n'safety lecture then we start for real.......

See you soon

Business as usual

I have now taken up residence on GUELROSE again. The children have now left after their week aboard (children!!! they are in their thirties!)

As is usual, I now cannot find anything in the cupboards as it has all been moved to different places. Tomorrow it is restocking in Tesco's at Reading before cruising solo up to Beale Park and starting work on Saturday.

Fuller reports re the site building will follow in due course......

A short day... and handover

A leisurely start to the day today, cruising from Beale Park to Tesco's at Reading.

Saw yet another Kingfisher today on the outskirts of Reading. We also noticed that they have already started building the site for the Reading Music Festival, but, to give them their due the Festival does open a few days before ours.....

Once at Tesco's it was time for a handover of the boat to our son, his family and friends. GUELROSE is now in his 'capable hands'. I shall be returning to the boat next Thursday so there will be no blog update until Friday 13th!! when I arrive on site at Beale Park and the work starts in earnest.

And so we reach Beale Park

After leaving Abingdon we were subjected to a very heavy shower of rain that lasted for the best part of an hour, then the sun came out and I dried out. A little while later the black clouds appeared again so I donned the full waterproof gear, and, guess what, we had a few spots of rain and that was it!

After six hours cruising (I got the GPS out and checked my speed downstream - wow - 4.5 mph!!) we got to Beale Park and checked out some of the moorings and we were able to get into them okay. However, since my last visit to plan the moorings, some of the trees, bushes and vegetation have grown a bit. Never mind, we will be able to sort it hopefully.

Tomorrow it is on to Reading and hand over the boat for a week to our son Jon.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY... The river is a real source of wildlife, we have seen numerous varieties of the usual ducks, coots and moorhens, plus quite a few Crested Grebe, an Egret, and today we were delighted to see three different Kingfishers, at Abingdon, Benson and Beale Park.

Service with a smile.....

It's our own fault, but, we really wanted to go up the Thames for a while, and, as we have to be in Reading on Thursday, today had to be quite a long day....

We stopped below Eynsham to dump the rubbish and empty the porta loos and then continued on down the Thames. The weather was reasonable, sunny spells and in the afternoon a couple of short showers. We passed some more National boats, ARACHNE, our boss ON REFLECTION, and Rex Wright on AMY EM.

We also had our first experience on operating a Thames Lock using the new system, opinions are currently reserved!!

A quick stop above Abingdon Lock to top up the water tank, and then below to moor up. Some chance!!! Apparently if you do not get here before lunchtime you have no chance!! BUT, every cloud has a silver lining and there is always a knight in shining armour just around the corner.

On the offside are some moorings which say private, but, they are not any more. Also. the charming man who runs the outboard motor repair centre leases some of the moorings, and, he will let you moor there for free if you ask. I needed some gas and some blue for the loo, which he sells, so the deal was done. An added bonus was the recreation ground nearby with plenty of doggie bins so the dogs were happy as well.

Just sitting here now listening to the church bells ringing......

Tomorrow we will moor at Beale Park, if we cannot find a mooring there then I have real problems over the Bank Holiday weekend!!

The Upper Thames.....

You can tell that the Bank Holiday Weekend and the National Waterways Festival is getting closer, yesterday we passed SANITY AGAIN, today it was FLORRIE KENDAL and FAIR FA.

Unfortunately we were only able to go up the river as far as Shifford Lock where we topped up the water, then winded and started back downstream. We have to be in Reading by Thursday afternoon as our son is having the boat for a week. If any of you are on the Kennet and Avon Canal from 5th to 12th August watch out for GUELROSE - the person in charge will not be me although you may be excused when you see what you think is a much younger version of me!!

Another lovely days cruising, some of the bends up this section of river are great fun in a 70 footer!! Another field mooring in the middle of nowhere, beautiful evening sunshine and a magnificent sunset. What more can one ask for.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY..... If you remove the narrowboats from the Upper Thames there will hardly be anything else left - I know a lot of cruisers cannot get past Osney Bridge but even so they are so sparse up here.....

Tragedy et al.....

My birthday was on Friday, I went to sign on to the internet to get all the hundreds of good wishes from my fellow facebook fans, but, the computer battery was almost dead and when I plugged in the charger it did not work!!

It was like having my arms and legs cut off - no computer - no Internet access - nothing!!!

Luckily, there is a happy ending to this story. I had a surprise visit from my 2 children, their spouses and my four grandchildren who insisted on taking me out for a meal. They all went home that night leaving the eldest granddaughter with us, but took my computer with them. My daughter returned next day to pick up the granddaughter and brought with her a replacement charger. JOY!!

So here I am, back on the Internet. We stayed at Thrupp from Friday morning until Sunday morning, intending to leave reasonably early. But, saying goodbye to Chrissie and Richard of DIGITALIS took time, then MAFFI turned up and had a chat, so, all in all, we left later than anticipated.

We eventually got onto the Thames, did a self pump out at Eynsham, (£8 is really good value these days) and, taking the lock keepers advice went past the pay moorings where we saw SANITY AGAIN, and moored up in a field which is apparently free....

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY... It is really peaceful here, if they could only get rid of the planes at Oxford airfield it would be even quieter.