BOATING ON THE THAMES

Although this blog is about boating on the Thames, I'm going to include a story I wrote about boating on the Burgundy Canal in my RichmondReview blog. You see... one of the reasons we bought the barge is because we're thinking of doing 'the French thing' in a few years time. So our holiday was a bit of a recce. I know that to compare is to despair, but I have to be honest and say that boating on the Burgundy Canal is pretty boring compared to boating on the Thames. And the 12 days we spent on the Canal between Tonnerre and Montbard in June were probably our worst holiday ever. The fact that it rained every day didn't help. And we had problems with our 'luxury' hire boat.  I say luxury in inverted commas because the boat smelt damp and musty, parts of it were downright dirty and brown duvet covers have never been synonymous with luxury to me (I was hoping for crisp, white cotton sheets and plump, lavender scented pillows). Back to the prob...

Three life changing things have happened since my last post on A Man, A Woman and a Boat: 1. I became Mrs J (we got married in September 2013) 2. I closed findaTVexpert.com (earlier this year in fact) 3. We bought a 15 mtr Piper barge which has made boating on the Thames even more wonderful Happy Chance (the barge) is our third boat, as we upgraded from our original 7.5mtr Antaris Dutch cruiser to a slightly bigger Diamond Dutch cruiser in 2012. She came down from Stoke on Trent on the back of a truck and was launched at the Thames & Kennet Marina in May 2015. I wrote a piece about our first year on Happy Chance for the Piper Boat website. I could copy and paste it into this post, but the photo layout wouldn't work as well. So here's the link instead: http://www.piperboats.com/owners-articles-22/

I started A Man, A Woman and a Boat ( BoatingStories.blogspot.co.uk ) in September 2009 when we bought our first boat and kept it up (sort of) for a few years. Then life got busy ... I put it on hold ... and completely forgot my log in details. I've tried everything but to no avail. So after a frustrating week of emails to Microsoft, debates on forums, etc, I've decided to accept the fact that I can't access it any longer. I considered adding my boating stories to my other blog - The Richmond Review - but it didn't feel right. Because that's more about life in general and what I'm doing now that I've closed my business (www.findaTVexpert.com). So I've copied and pasted all the boating posts and photos from my original blog into this one and will continue from where I left off.  Enjoy!

We took our boat out for the first time last weekend - and it was bliss.  There's something hugely relaxing about being on the Thames. Maybe it's because you can't go faster than 5km/hr on the river. So you're forced to sit back and watch the wildlife (including ducks, geese, swans, grebes and - if you're lucky - kingfishers); look at the houses and enjoy the sunshine. What was shocking, however, was to see the tide marks on the trees and garden sheds. The river level must have been up by over a metre (3-4 feet) at times.  And the silt it left in it's wake has coated all the plants, shrubs and reeds in a thin white dust, conjuring up images of what Miss Haversham's garden would look like if she had one. We were thinking of leaving London and buying a house on the river last year.  But after all the rain we've had - and the damage that's been done around the country - I think we'll stick to boating for now.

Although lots has been said and written about the awful weather we've had this year, we've actually been out on the boat more times this year than last year. And other than a very rainy Sunday in September - see below - the weather's been fine. This weekend - 15/16 October - was exceptional, as you can see from the photo I took of the stretch between Henley & Hambleden. Gloriously warm days; cool, crisp evenings; a delicious dinner at The Little Angel in Henley and a fantastic breakdast at the Chocolate Theatre Cafe. What's not to love

... isn't much fun at all. This was a weekend in September - just before the glorious 'Indian Summer'. As it's my job to secure the ropes when we go through the locks, I got pretty wet. But luckily it was a Sunday and we were on our way home. And if I remember correctly, Saturday wasn't too bad. If it had been, we wouldn't have gone out on the boat. There's just no point.

It's been ages since I last wrote, but not because we haven't been on the river. We've actually spent 11 glorious weekends boating, walking and eating along The River Thames since the Easter Bank Holiday. So I thought I'd share some of the highlights. On the walking front, we've discovered there are stunning fields to cross, woods to walk through and picturesque villages to visit within 5-10 miles of Henley. This weekend, for example, we did a 17.5 miles circular route that took us along the river to Hambleden and across wonderful countryside to Skirmett, Fingest, Turvil, Stonor House, Middle Assendon and then back to Henley through a beautiful deer park. A shorter, but equally gorgeous, walk is from Henley to Rotherfield Greys, then up to Greys Court (a National Trust House) and back through the Badgemore Park Golf Club . The options are endless and we're having a fantastic time exploring them. All that walking builds up an appetite, of course, but...