With some warmth in the sun at last now seems a good time to take Ramyshome into Summer.  Go to SUMMER 06 to read more of our journeys

Monday 29th May. (1702 miles, 1165 locks).  Back to the swift flowing Thames, and swift it has been in places after another week of sunshine and showers.  We were able to share more locks as we came back down the K & A, this time travelling in unison, physically and almost alphabetically, with Tina & Klim Corke on their boat Nb Strathmore.  On Thursday we left them still tied up to the trees below Aldermaston but only made another two miles or so to Sheffield Lock where we stayed for two nights waiting for river levels to drop.  Typically as Surrey Water instigate their drought order the Kennet and Thames are in flood but Friday was sunny and warm and gave us the chance to start this year's boat painting.  On Saturday, in calmer conditions we completed the last few miles of the K & A to the Thames all of which turned out to be much easier steering than we had anticipated a few days before.  Saturday afternoon as the rain came again we moored at Sonning to be entertained by the antics at the local regatta.  With Tina & Klim and crew Joyce & Ray joining us at Sonning Lock on Sunday we shared a sunny day and a beautiful river trip passed Henley and Hurley before mooring below Marlow lock.  The moorings were full but we found 20 feet of hard edge and two boats moored alongside each other roped to the trees.  Today with sunshine and occasional showers we have continued on passed Cliveden with the big house high up on the wooded ridge, and on through Maidenhead and Bray to moor above Boveney Lock ready for a short sail to Windsor in the morning.  The river is full of boats this bank holiday weekend, adding to the interest and, picking our way through 40 or so sailing dinghies, quite challenging for the steerer.  This stretch of the Thames has been different again, still plenty of wildlife including more Red Kites and here wild parakeets but also posh houses and some beautiful river reaches.  Last week we thought we were mixing with the stars as Timothy West & Prunella Scales sailed by aboard their own boat and we moored opposite Kate Bush's house but yesterday we stepped up the list to get a wave from Vince Hill and today into the A list with Michael Parkinson gracing us with a wave back;  sadly all we saw next door was Rolf Harris's crocodile.  More importantly, tonight we have finally met Lorna & Ted Baker.  Someone who knows Maureen's parents in the south of France has a sister whose is a friend of Lorna's and the message came back across the water to us both.  Having monitored each other's websites (theirs http://home.freeuk.com/tedafloat/) and exchanged emails we have found each other and now both boats are breasted up with Nb Strathmore ahead of us.  Sunshine boating is so sociable.            

Sunday 21st May. (1650 miles, 1126 locks).  We were underway early on Thursday (well 9:00 am is early for us to be moving) so we could lock up with a group of guys on a hireboat.  They had the look of an accident waiting to happen and at one point they lost a stool overboard then jumped in to recover it.  With many hands making light work we were soon up the last 3 locks, through Bruce Tunnel and down the first six Crofton Locks, where we called it a day before lunchtime.  We haven't seen the lads since so hopefully they made it back to base without sinking the boat.  In the afternoon, with the wind howling around, we visited Crofton Pumphouse in which two balance beam engines used to pump water from the reservoir up into the summit pound, i.e. the highest point of the K & A canal.  Occasionally they have days when the engines are in steam and we would guess these are the times to visit as silent steam engines aren't terribly interesting.  However we got talking to the warden and his missus and once again heard the words "Oh we do envy you, one day we plan to go cruising ourselves".  At least they already own a boat so we wished them well and they got us thinking about what we might do for a job when we finally give up this cruising life (when the money runs out).  Later we helped another hire crew moor up.  Struggling in the gale they did finally get moored but facing the way they had come; well they didn't do as we told them!  On Friday we stopped again at lunchtime and later took a bus to Marlborough.  Some interesting architecture and some very posh frock shops but not really enough to keep us there for long, although the ride through the countryside and thatched villages was worth the fare.  Having been blown along to Hungerford on Saturday the wind has turned around today and blown rain in our faces so just a short hop to Kintbury and now the sun is trying to break through, typical.            

Sunday 7th May. (1615miles, 1063 locks).  On Tuesday afternoon, in the company of old friends Ann & Grahame Robinson, we sailed into Bristol Floating Harbour to complete our westward journey from the Thames.  82 miles, 104 locks, 17 days all adding up to a very enjoyable trip.  The final few miles along the River Avon and in to Bristol proving to be a fascinating end to the journey.  The harbour is home to a great mix of boats - sail, narrow, wide, big with the largest by far Brunel's mighty SS Great Britain.  We felt very small crossing the wide open waters, perhaps a taster for the mighty Thames in July.  The visitor moorings are just a step away from the City Centre with all the usual shops but some fascinating architecture including another tower built in honour of the explorer John Cabot giving wide views across the city.  Another visitor on Wednesday when we welcomed aboard Maureen's Aunt Margaret for a trip around the "bay".  On Thursday with some sadness we turned around and began the long cruise back to Reading.  The hottest day of the year so far with the thermometer touching 80 degrees F.  Down to T-shirts and the winter coats stowed away.  Will we need them again before winter?  Certainly not on Friday as the temperature climbed again and we started to climb locks in the company of new friends Harry & Linda Stewart who were on the last day of their holiday.  Evening drinks afloat back in Bath were hopefully a pleasant end to a Somerset Avon cruise.  Our aim is to moor in different locations on the way back so after Saturday night by the aqueduct at Dundas today we have sailed on passed Trowbridge to Semington.  The end of another pleasant day but also the end of the first year of our adventure.  So far so good.  No, much better than good, better than we had ever expected.  Beautiful landscapes, interesting places, so many visitors, new friends, no regrets.  A wonderful experience and we are not half way done.                  

Sunday 30th April. (1565miles, 1044 locks).  More locks than miles this week as we "fell" off the hill at Devizes.  Having left the River Kennet behind at Hungerford we climbed up on to the chalk downs.  They have a unique feel about them that we can't quite explain but the landscape definitely has a different feel about it than any we have sailed through to date.  We arrived in Devizes on Tuesday morning, found a good butchers/deli and a veg shop leaving Tesco to supply just the basics.  It looks an interesting town which we shall explore next week but Tuesday evening we spent descending the first 6 locks.  Wednesday morning we welcomed Maureen's parents Brian & Meriel Taylor, visiting from France, together with her aunt & uncle Madeline & Noel Bailey.  4 hours later we have travelled 2 miles but descended the 23 locks of Caen Hill and Foxhangers, a long hard day made a little frustrating by the interruptions of a camera crew filming a get fit programme for Sky.  And they definitely didn't want us on screen!!  In the evening Maureen's cousin Kate & husband Patrick Rule came a visiting and on Friday morning cousin Carol & Francis Bray came to take the Taylor's away from Bradford on Avon.  As replacement crew daughter Heather and partner Chris sailed with us to Bath and for part of the way we were in company with Nb Chantilly, fellow RBS Sailing Club members John & Diane Pemberton's own boat.  Tonight we are moored on the Avon below Poulteney Weir right in the centre of the City.  On Saturday evening we were lucky to catch the very colourful sight of 24 hot air balloons taking to the sky from a city centre park.  Following afternoon tea and bath bun tonight we have enjoyed a stroll around the city streets with Bizarre Bath and 60 other members of the pedestrian audience.  Great fun, very funny particularly the houdini rabbit (!) and despite the rain.  One to recommend.                  

Sunday 16th April. (1496miles, 952locks).  Another 40 miles of the Thames sailed this week, a wonderful trip so much better than expected.  Easy moorings, friendly boaters, the wildlife numerous and varied, the landscape and architecture interesting.  The rise and fall of our journey is reflected in the differing locations of our overnight moorings.  On Monday we sailed out of Oxford passed rowing clubs and several beautiful Salters Steamers, which still provide a passenger service along the Thames in summer.  We reached Abingdon in the afternoon to find lots of free mooring spaces.  Here we stayed for 3 nights experiencing the delights of a Waitrose supermarket, another laundrette (both a little more expensive than we are used to) and an overnight visit from daughter Heather who needed her Mum to go shopping with!  Abingdon is a lovely town with some fascinating buildings and pleasant riverside gardens.  On Thursday we progressed down river, spotting a red kite (yes the bird), to Wallingford which sadly didn't stand comparison with Abingdon.  Limited moorings and a slightly scruffy feel to the town but here we met "three men in a boat" or at least three fellows suitably attired rowing their camping skiff from Shepperton to Oxford, 85 miles in a week.  In true Jerome K Jerome style they slopped off to a hotel in the evening but assured us they had slept under the canvasses until today.  We also welcomed on board a former work colleague of Maureen's, Jean Stanyon who lives locally.  Friday and it was Goring, another delightful riverside town with some expensive houses and busy with tourists in the warm weather.  We have now learnt that turning the boat around and mooring upstream is the way to do it.  Yesterday we sailed on to Reading saying a particular hello to the lockkeeper at Pangbourne, the son in law of our friend Roy Manning.  Close to the junction with the River Kennet there are moorings for Tesco's so we did as Rory McGrath's TV Jerome had done, although unlike at Rugby the trolleys can't be wheeled to the towpath.  Turning onto the Kennet we came to moor in a backwater below the walls of Reading Jail amongst the glass tower blocks that fill the Reading skyline.  Here are the only (?) traffic lights for boaters controlling the movement of boats through a narrow section of the river.  Although our first passion is boating one of our crew has a second that must be marked today with the success of his football team, Sheffield United, in achieving promotion back to the Premium League.  Well done lads, doing it without me.        

Friday 31st March. (1389 miles, 910 locks)  We dipped our proverbial toes in the Thames on Wednesday as we came to Oxford but have struggled all week with moorings.  On Monday we found a pleasant spot below Somerton Bridge and wandered through another pretty sandstone village before the rain came.  Almost no mooring was to be had at Little Heyford or Enslow on Tuesday so we pressed on to Thrupp crossing the River Cherwell on the way, struggling in the strong wind to tie up before we could open the lock that would bring us back onto canal.  Thrupp and its sister village Shipton proved not as pretty as we had expected and again overnight moorings were limited.  Similarly the final few miles towards Oxford were not very exciting and more long lines of bankside permanent moorers slow our progress.  We know that journeys into cities often pass through dull areas but somehow we thought Oxford would be different.  We turned west onto Dukes Cut and a mile further on we were moored at our first Thames river lock.  They are very different from a canal lock not just because of the wheels in place of ratchets to open the sluice gates and the lock keepers (female at Kings) but also because their surrounds are so well tended.  Down river through Godstow Lock shared with Nb Osiris we then sail passed the green space known as Port Meadows.  Here horses graze and the spires and towers of Oxford peer over the trees away on the far side.  Turning off the main channel we are quickly through the pretty Isis Lock just 10 minutes from the City Centre but then our problems begin.  Oxford, like Warwick and Chester has so many attractions that the canal and its boaters seem to be of little importance.  The moorings are dreadful, only those limited to 24 hours being deep enough and with rings to moor securely.  The 7 day moorings are so shallow we can't get within 5 feet of the bank and we wrap a tarpaulin bag around the propeller so tight we have to call out the local boatyard to help us clear it.  Last night it rained so hard the Thames has risen 2 feet and is now closed to navigation.  The joys of boating!!           

Sunday 26th March. (1369 miles, 896 locks)  Where does the South begin?  It is said that when you cross the Trent you are in the North, although in truth we have never felt Derby, Stoke or even Chesterfield seem like northern towns.  That proverbial line from the Bristol Channel to the Wash must pass close to Banbury and certainly the countryside below Banbury has a southern feel - whatever that may be.  But have we really arrived in the South?   As you will see from the numbers we have been locking again, climbing out of the Avon & Leam river valleys and down into the Cherwell, which will take us to Oxford.  At Napton we circumnavigated the windmill, standing tall on the top of the ridge, finishing the circuit by walking through the village and up to the end of its driveway.  Here we also took on coal and diesel from Ivor & Mel Batchelor and their floating service station narrowboat Mountbatten.   Above the 9 Napton locks the canal does its own circumnavigation winding this way and that as it crosses the summit between the two valleys.  There is a tall radio mast which we passed at least three times!  Finally we started the descent reaching the lovely village of Cropredy on Wednesday.   A quiet, sandstone and thatched roofs type of village which comes alive each August for the Cropredy Folk Festival.  Just a few miles on we reach Banbury the first town since Rugby and a pleasant place with a mix of old and new architecture that seems to fit.  48 hour moorings are just a step away from the new shopping centre and beyond is a good mix of shops, restaurants, etc. and finally Banbury Cross and its Cock Horse statue.  Beyond Banbury Oxford Canal lift bridges come thick and fast, although most are left in the "up" position so it just needs a little care not to take the chimney off as we pass beneath.  Today we walked the mile uphill to the pretty village of Aynho and saw daffodil trumpets blowing in the wind for the first time.  And talking of wind, the good news is that we have finally swapped the cold easterly for a blustery south westerly.  The bad news is that it has brought rain with it.  Oh, and TV reception is dreadful in the Cherwell Valley.         

Sunday 12th March. (1305 miles 865 locks)  Ah, Ashby a lock-free, rural idyll of a canal.  It starts pretty much nowhere, winds this way and that and 22 miles later comes to an end still nowhere in particular.  The perfect canal for the idler and a bit of a fraudster too.  Even in its heyday the Ashby Canal never reached Ashby-de-la-Zouch.  Oh, the builders had grand plans to join the River Trent but when they reached the North Leicester coalfield they struck gold and stopped digging.  Hard to conceive today that 60 years ago this canal was busy with coal barges.  On Monday, with snow falling, we took on our own supplies of coal and diesel at Ashby Boats and headed on north to Sutton Cheney where we found excellent new service facilities.  From here a path goes through Ambion Wood to Bosworth Battlefield where in 1485 the first War of the Roses ended with Richard III losing his crown to Henry - the wrong team won even then!  With the rain getting heavier and having visited the site before we moved onto Market Bosworth and walked the mile uphill to the village centre.  It has a good butcher, greengrocer, deli and well stocked Co-op but the variety of architecture alone makes the walk worthwhile.  By Wednesday afternoon we were moored at the end of the canal to be greeted by the lady off Nb Matty Kate as though we were friends she'd last seen a week ago rather than nearly two years previously.  With money and the support of Leicester County Council in place restoration of the next 2 miles to Measham (famous for its brown and cream pottery) should begin this summer.  Walking the line of the canal to the edge of the town we can see there is a lot of work to do but one day soon.....  By Friday we were back at Stoke Golding and spent a pleasant evening with Mike and Sue Brannan, part owners of Nb Dreamweaver.  We first met them taking delivery of their brand new boat from Riverview Narrowboats at Kegworth.  Like us they were waiting for the flooded rivers Soar & Trent to abate knowing we had to be above Shardlow Lock before it closed for winter repairs the following Monday.  After daily visits to check on the state of the Trent we set off together on the Sunday with Sue looking very nervous.   However the torrent had become just a strong flow and slowly but surely we pushed up the Trent to the safety of Sawley and on to Shardlow.  We saw them again at Whitchurch last September and promised to call when we passed their home.  Tonight we are moored close by Coventry city centre with not a green field in sight.     

Sunday 5th March.  (1260 miles, 865 locks)  Whilst many may agree that Hinckley is an interesting little town few would accept that it has sufficient attractions to waylay the canal traveller for more than say a couple of days.  So our frustration is rising with each day the ice holds us fast.  A sunny Monday this week saw us ascend the top 5 locks at Atherstone only to discover that the coal yard by the top lock is no longer retailing from the site and unable to replenish our dwindling stock of coal.  A little concerned we sailed on to another of our favourite moorings at Hartshill, with its attractive B.W. yard and buildings, to find the 14 day moorings almost full.  Having obtained a couple of bags of (expensive) coal at Valley Cruisers we sailed passed Nuneaton - passed being the operative word.  From the canal it looks a poor place seeming to care very little for the canal except perhaps as a source of water for the many allotments that line its bank.  To the north west of the town is an enormous hole that used to be(?) a quarry.  The canal comes so close to one edge that you can peer right down to the floor and one day we are sure the whole of the Coventry Canal will empty into it making a nice paddling pool for the locals!  In the evening we celebrated Maureen's 13 1/2 birthday (you work it out!) with a meal at The Corner House in what our guidebook calls Marston Jabbett but the signs indicated was Bucklington.  Reasonable fayre for the price but a long way from the Plum Pudding's standards and no jelly and ice cream as their freezer had broken down.  For those of you who know your canals you will recognise we are now on the Ashby Canal and heading north again.  On Wednesday morning we woke to a thin layer of ice on the canal easily broken by a couple of passing boats and so we set off, carefully, for Hinckley and a planned laundry stop at Trinity Marina.  And 4 days later here we are still ice in front of us and ice behind us, well over an inch thick in places and thus potentially damaging to our hull if we try to move.  OK, we have missed all the snow you have been trying to cope with but snow would be good, ice we don't want and the forecast still says cold until Tuesday.  Shall we ever move again?                    

Sunday 19th Feb.  (1212 miles & 827 locks completed)  New waters, a new activity and lots of coconuts.  As we slipped away from Penkridge on Tuesday we were sailing the next 3 miles to Gailey for the first time ever.  In truth we hadn't been missing much for the landscape was pretty uninteresting and flat even though we were climbing up through 5 locks.  It must be one of the noisiest stretches of canal with the traffic on the M6 almost within touching distance for quite a good stretch.  Finally escaping the motorway we arrived at Gailey with its unusual roundhouse and the moorings where Nb Endurance, the RBS Sailing Club's latest boat was lying waiting its first crew of the season.  Looks like a well built boat.  On Thursday morning we reached Autherley Junction where back in August and coming up from the south we had turned onto the Shroppie.  Soon after we were at Addersley Junction and the start of the climb into Wolverhampton.  21 locks nearly all of them against us took over 4 hours steady locking whilst the scenery changed from semi-rural to definitely urban.  After a safe night in the centre of Wolverhampton we were off along the B.C.N. mainline to Birmingham where we moored for the third time opposite the National Indoor Arena.  Where do all the coconuts come from?  We had lost count, well into double figures, long before we had reached the 3 locks at Tipton.  It must be a sport in the West Midlands to throw whole coconuts into the canal.  And of course they float for obviously quite a long time.  Having watched a Shakespeare play and listened to folk music our latest activity on Saturday night was going to the "flicks" in Birmingham City Centre.  We saw "The Constant Gardener", an enthralling tale although we came away just a little disappointed with the film.  What next to try and where?  Having shopped this morning we have descended the 13 Farmer's Bridge Locks, very heavy and very exhausting, to moor once again at Aston Science Park.  Another 15 locks tomorrow & 11 more on Tuesday.