Another reasonably long day of 7 hours helming between Oxford and Wallingford. Leaving our moorings at Osney Lock we just missed a boat going downstream like us, she said she had had problems with the electric lock and gone manual, but it caused no problems for us. There are a number of buttons that have to be pressed in the correct order, and it cannot be rushed. Sure enough at the next lock she interrupted the operation to try and open the gates, when we came around the corner with another cruiser. My advice was to leave everything alone, and let it reset itself. Fortunately the lock keeper arrived, sorted the problem and put us thru, along with a stern but friendly lecture ! No more problems with the rest of the locks.

With persistent drizzle we topped up with water, used the services and motored onto Wallingford. Our friends guided us onto mooring, afternoon tea and then a pub dinner.
With the Queens funeral approaching they will go back home on Thursday, no camping will be available around Windsor. As usual my planning saw us going thru Windsor on the Monday, but boating notices indicate a lot of delays going thru and no mooring allowed. We shall have to speed up, or more probably slow down a bit. I’ll probably need fuel, and shopping, so with everything closed on the bank holiday it’s looking like a stopover in Pangbourne and Henley, possibly a short run up the Kennet and Avon Canal at Reading as well. A rest day now.

Eynsham lock was busy last afternoon as a hireboat fleet had to be back by early this morning. Whilst taking some photos of their boat I detected that Aussie twang….”G’Day mate” found out they were from Sydney.

The 24hour overnight stop worked well, very quiet with a bathroom. A full size shower is always appreciated now !

Again with not too many miles to do we had a leisurely start to the day. The rural nature continued with twists and turns, out of which popped SO Little Gem heading back to Lechlade.

The locks were all manned today, and are gradually increasing in size. We’ve never had to wait, so I think the days of water rationing are over down south.

There are lots of Swans, Canada Geese and other wildfowl to keep you company as you float along. The road noise increased with the Oxford Ring road bridge, typically with a traffic jam. Then around another corner was Godstow lock and it’s abbey ruins. In the distance Oxfords dreaming spires had been supplemented by cranes, and lots of them.

Oxford’s water meadows are extensive, after another hours cruising we entered suburbia, with a plethora of houses, bridges and run down continuous cruisers…always moored on the outskirts of cities as cheap housing. Being here before we knew there are good moorings between Osney lock and bridge, and soon we were settled in.

We’ve had a quick 10 minute walk into town, a few salads from M&S, and a new clock for Prime Thyme. We purchased this from a John Lewis store in the Centrepoint shopping centre.

Oxford had changed, this was an enormous complex under cover. Lots of people were a bit overwhelming after our rural interlude, time to retreat to our boat and hang the clock !

After no internet yesterday today will be a 2 day one !

We made an early start from Lechlade, taking advantage of the sunny morning after the usual torrential downpour overnight.

We shortly came across our first lock, just being prepared by a 60’ single hander. He explained the sluices to Hazel and we were off. Prime Thyme handles like a dream, and I successfully entered the lock with an inch to spare either side, and not touching the lock walls or other boat. I seem to be consistently doing this, so all worries about my skills being rusty are gone. Either that or Prime Thyme is one of those “good” boats to steer, she’s certainly not as squirrelly as T42.

The upper way is very rural, with tight turns and little infrastructure. We decided to stick with our new companion, as sharing the locks made things easier, and saved water.

After 7 hours cruising we decided to drop the pins at New Bridge. With a pub either end it was lively compared to the rest of the day, and the stone mellowed in the evening light.

Today started totally different, with a thick mist swirling around. At first the river remained rural, then gradually some desirable residences began to appear.

Eventually we reached Eynsham lock with all its facilities. After filling the water tank and emptying the Elsan, we took advantage of the town for lunch and shopping. As we are only a few hours from Oxford, and have 24hours free mooring, we’ll stay the night. We hope to catch up with Lazy Otters crew on Tuesday and partake of a proper canal, albeit briefly.

An early start saw us on the slipway awaiting Tony, rain and traffic delayed him, but he took great care in loading PT.

First the trailer is submerged, the boat is partly loaded, and trailed part way up the ramp. This allows water to drain from the flooding keel, then re submerged and pulled fully on.

Prime Thyme was dragged fully out, and allowed to drain whilst being strapped down. 30’ is the biggest boat Tony will move, and it’s a big rig, pulled by a specially adapted Landcruiser.

It was a wet drive to Lechlade, so Tony took his time, and we had no problems. Lechlade Marina gave us a warm welcome, and helped unload, much appreciated along with long shoreline lead. With our alternator giving further trouble we’ve decided to stay and sort it out. Lazy Otters crew turned up, so good to catch up !

I’ve just had a walk, between showers, and the Thames looks beautiful tonight, with the Cotswold stone buildings having a golden glow.

Yesterday was spent fixing the key start and sorting the boat prior to our lift to Lechlade. Any extraneous weight is left in the car, and our water tank will be emptied. We’ve had a lot of rain, thankfully in showers, so I can do interior/exterior work appropriately. It’s just started agin, hopefully it will ease for our loading at 10:30. Just a couple of pics of Prime Thyme in day and night mode. She’s unusual in having a seperate shower and bathroom either side of the very narrow corridor, if you leave their doors open there’s room to wield a towel !

The kitchen has a lot of sliding drawer space, a great improvement over T42, and there’s storage under the dinette.

For sleeping the dinette converts to a single or bunk beds, whilst the L shaped lounge converts to a large single. Heating is provided by a gas fired hot air system, and hot water by immersion, if connected to a shoreline or by engine calorifier. She’s powered by a 21hp Barrus Shire engine, and has a flooding keel, more on that tomorrow.

Apparently there was another severe thunderstorm last night, somebody slept right thru it 🤫, either way the river is very high with water cascading over the top of locks. A lot of the weirs on the River Wey have to be set by hand, and some of the lengthsmen have been caught on the hop after trying to conserve water for so long. Our plan was to motor back to Pyrford, in anticipation of a trail to Lechlade on Thursday.

We managed to catch 2 boats in 2 locks, was waived on after sharing, so decided to stop at Send at the excellent New Inn.

The weather started to look threatening, we ended up making 4 temporary stops due to lightening and heavy downpours. The sun did try though, giving some vivid colours and reflections.

Unfortunately the boat seemed to be getting harder to start, with a realisation that the key barrel was turning, I was able to hand hold it and we got back into the Marina before another torrential downpour. I went to find the engineer, he was on the phone requesting an immediate release of water from the Wey into the Thames, as his dry dock, with freshly painted boat, was about to be flooded. So tomorrow will see another round of jobs to do, and a decision made on wether to trail to the Thames.

What a busy, but successful 24 hours we’ve had. After a series of tech disasters on day 1 we’ve managed to resolve most. Our first nights mooring at Papercourt Lock was spectacular at 2am with lightening all around us, but still and misty by 6…..

I was the shower curtains first victim of the day, I don’t know about senior cyclists in Lycra, perhaps a soapy wrap round number would be better, think telephone box with lukewarm water. The days locks got better and better as Hazel and I got into the swing of things, but the rain decided to re appear as we neared Dapdune Wharf.

Apart from some slight belt squeal when under heavy load Prime Thyme is performing well. I think she’s more manoeuvre able than T42, and I seem to in control most of the time ! Our arrival in Guildford saw re provisioning from Marks and Sparks, Boots the Chemist for Hazel (blood pressure machine for me, you can’t take the nurse out of Hazel), a camera battery for me and a SIM card to contact our UK friends. The cause for a G and T was the successful unlocking of my Visa Card, only a 25 minute wait on an international line! We managed one more lock before finding a mooring in the Guildford Meadows. I think we’ll both sleep better tonight !

Just a quick blog, to say we are safely aboard Prime Thyme and have motored down a little further than expected due to our 4:30am arrival. A fellow Sea Otter on the same pontoon had his drone up and captured us leaving….so all is good except on the phone front. Telstra is not dialling out and all attempts to get the UK one going have failed, and got my credit card locked. Please text to unlock……. BUT MY PHONES DON’T WORK so how can I do this……tech, great when it works but when it fails !I shall attempt to sort this out tomorrow, it’s all too hard for my sleep deprived brain.

Yesterday we did a skip from Lonnie to Melbourne, and have overnighted in the airport hotel. It was pleasant to while away the hours plane spotting from our room using the Flight Radar app to find out where they had come from or where going to…

Just a few more hours to go before making our way to the international terminal, and skipping to Perth and then a mighty jump to London ! For those of you interested in photography, a quick note on the gear I am using.

The little camera on the left is a Leica CL. A very capable crop sensor unit coupled with 11-23mm and 55-135mm zoom lenses with a walk around 18mm pancake lens. This has manual and autofocus capabilities and can be easily carried in a small bag. It’s ideal for quick, but good images. To the right and back is full frame Leica M10R, with 2 Summilux, f1.4, lenses at 21 and 50mm. This is a digital Rangerfinder, no autofocus, and is only limited in image quality by the operator. You need to slow down and think using this, but the super wide 21mm will be great for evening walks along the river. Finally the little unit in the front is a Olympus Pen F, fitted with a pancake 14-42mm zoom and 60mm Macro. This is a great camera for Hazel to point and shoot, and I’ll use the Macro lens when visiting gardens.

Well that’s all for now, see you on the other side, of the world!

Well it’s been a long time coming, but almost 3 years since swapping our Sea Otter narrowboat T42 for Prime Thyme, it looks like we are finally going to step aboard. As usual in the “new” world of ours there are still a few curved balls in play. Namely the lack of water in the UK. This has led to restrictions on the canal locks to save water, and has unfortunately led to Lazy Otter being unable to join us this year. However Rico and Lorraine plan to join us along our trip using their camper trailer.

So our current plan is to have a 3 day shakedown cruise to Guildford on the River Wey, then use our existing trailing option to go Lechlade at the head of the navigable Thames and slowly sample the pubs, I mean cruise, back to Pyrford Marina. We have done part of this before, but I was recovering from an abscess under a tooth, so it will be good to do this at leisure. There are lots of attractive towns and scenery along the way, and I’ll have some photographic gear to capture it

But first we have to get it of the Marina. Here is an aerial view, a bit of reversing first, always interesting with a squared off stern, then out on the “cut” (slang for canal), past the pub, bound to be lots of gongoozlers (people watching for crashes!) then up to Walsham Gates for our first night.

Then if all goes well, upstream to Guildford to provision the boat. We’ll have 2 days to get back and prep the boat for trailing to Lechlade. Tony Tugboats, great name ! will be doing this as Norm from Central Boat Transport has sadly stopped due to health reasons.

The upper Thames is very rural, going thru towns like Oxford, Wallingford, Abingdon and Windsor. Lots to see and do, hopefully we can get on the Oxford canal for a short cruise as well, so much to look forward to! It will feel strange being on a new boat, we had some great times on T42.