On Up The Thames

After spending a splendid evening at Pangbourne it was time to explore some more of the river. We pressed on to Goring. At Cleeve lock we were able to pay over our £48.50 to the lock keeper for a 7 day Thames licence. The intention is to take a detour, when we get to Dukes Cut, Westwards to Lechlade. A quick re-calculation of the tour plan showed that we would have to up our cruising time each day from 5 to 6hrs 15mins in order not to incur further licence costs.

 

We passed under the second of Brunel's lovely skewed brick arched railway bridges.

 

 

Pat and Angela passing us.

 

At Cleeve lock a kind narrowboater gave us advice on where to moor tonight as we have found out that you have to get in early in the day in order to secure a decent spot.

Just beyond the bridge at Wallingford there are some shady moorings in the trees and so the search was on. I told Dianne on the hand held two way radio to keep a lookout for a suitable spot when I heard a reply from Pat on his device that they were already moored up and would seek out a spot for us. How fortunate is that!

After some lunch we explored the grounds behind our mooring. There are the remains of a huge Norman castle built on a mound by Robert D'Oilly in 1071. it was destroyed by Fairfax in 1646. The Castle Gardens close at 4pm so we took the opportunity to look round the town finishing up at the Boathouse enjoying an ice cool lager and taking in the views across the water.