The Sounds of the River Thames

-

There are five sounds that say 'the Thames' to me:

1. The whoop whoop whoop of the swans as they take flight.
2. The (endless) honking of the Canada geese, especially when you're trying to have a lie-in.
3. The growl of bow and stern thursters in the locks and when boats are mooring up.
4. The 'kerchoomf' sound of rowing blades driving through the water (again, usually at the crack of dawn when you're trying to have a lie-in)
5. The ting, ting, ting of mooring pins as they're being driven into the bank with a mallet.

Which are your five?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The UK's last self hammering mooring stake

-
Image
I've spent the last few months looking for one of these: a self hammering mooring stake.  Because when we're mooring along the bank and Mr J wants me to secure the bow rope as quickly as possible, the stake and mallet option sometimes takes too long. Plus it's hard work. So when some friends showed me their self hammering stakes, I decided to get one. But first I had to find them.  My friends couldn't remember where they'd got theirs from and our local chandleries had never heard of them. So it was over to google. After hours searching the internet and cross referencing different key words, I came across a few forums that mentioned automatic mooring stakes. The good news was that the descriptions matched what I had in mind. The bad news was that apparently they didn't exist any more. Undeterred I kept looking and discovered that Viking Marine  in Goole used to stock them. So I picked up the phone and spoke to a lovely lady called Sue. There was more good news
Read more

Lardon Chase and The Hollies

-
Image
Although we've been to Goring many times - and have an ordnance survey map criss crossed with highlighted walks - we'd never done the  Lardon Chase and The Hollies walk.  So we put it on our 2017 Boating Season 'to do' list - and did it over the Easter Bank Holiday. It's a lovely walk and at just 3 miles long, the perfect length for a pre or post lunch stroll with friends.There's one thing I'd change though. Instead of starting at the car park, winding your way down through the Hollies and then walking up Lardon Chase at the end, I'd do it the other way around. I'd walk along the Reading Road, up through The Hollies and then down Lardon Chase. That way you can enjoy the view which - as you can see from the photo - is quite spectacular. Or better still, I'd pack some sandwiches, walk through the gate at the top of Lardon Chase, sit on the perfectly placed benches and have a picnic.
Read more

Gorgeous Goring on Thames

-
Image
Last weekend we made it up to Pangbourne and this weekend we put in the extra hour and went to Goring on Thames . We left Wargrave just before 3pm and moored up at 7.20pm. Four and a half hours is a long treck but I'd rather be in a boat on the river than in a car on the M4. Especially on a Bank Holiday Friday! Goring is really beautiful and we're looking forward to going on long walks in the surrounding countryside next time around. The only problem - apparently - is that it can be quite difficult to get a mooring because a) there aren't that many and b) it's a very popular spot. But it's worth if if you do. We had dinner at The Miller of Mansfield which is a restaurant, bar and hotel. The bar is very 'country pub' and the restaurant is very 'sleek boutique'. Great food and a very friendly service. My only complaint is that there wasn't enough lighting where we were sitting. I had to hold the menu over the tealight to be able
Read more