Tasotter and H are on their way to the UK again for the annual narrowboat cruise and more. We had a slightly delayed flight and overnight in Melbourne yesterday, and are shortly about to board QF9 to London, with a quick refuelling pit stop in Perth.

Our house sitters from Dunedin quickly settled in, and are being re trained by Cooper and Rosie into a Butler and Maid service, good luck guys ! Flying up the valley gave us a Birds Eye view of new housing developments around us, I’ll be glad when the earthworks finish. As ever the Valley looked beautiful in the afternoon sunlight, we are lucky to live in such a stable and picturesque part of the world….but there’s always room for canals and rivers to explore by a Sea Otter.

Our boat trip plans have changed a number of times, here’s Plan C……there is no plan apart from going from the River Wey onto the Thames and hopefully up the Oxford Canal in a 5 week period. It’s all about SLOW BOATING this year. Let’s relax and explore some of the towns along the waterside. We do have a rental car back in the Marina should the desire to play in the traffic prove too strong. However roundabouts like this quickly put me off.

The last 2 weeks of our trip will be a big boat cruise around Ireland in Oceania’s Nautica. She’s a sister ship to Regatta who we cruised to Alaska last year, and with just 600 passengers is very comfortable. I’ve cut down on the camera gear this year, with just 2 (so far 🤫) suitable for the expected landscape needs. A Fuji XH2 with 18-300mm lens will cover the wide angle to telephoto requirements, with a stabilised body and lens to cope with rolling boaty movements ! For the evening strolls and macro requirements a Leica Q2 will be more than sufficient.

The trip has not started off brilliantly, I lost my razor on the way to the airport, and have come down with a cold…..sounds just like last year doesn’t it….if that’s all that goes wrong I’ll not complain.

See you in England !

We did a quick trip down to Weybridge yesterday, for a successful visit to the bank, and a few stock items for Prime Thyme. It was quiet going down, but a few boats were making their way upstream by the time we turned around. Hazel’s “favourite” last lock, New Haw, was a bit anti climatic because somebody waited for us and shared the lock duties !

As ever I am blessed with my crew ❤️😀, many thanks to H for all the locks, galley duties and frequent washing of tops in the hot weather. It was a bit frantic on the Thames sometimes, the alternator breakdown didn’t help, but we coped with it all and had a great 3 weeks cruising.

We are packing today, doing a final boat clean and swapping the cratch covers over ready for the change of seasons. However the holiday has one more highlight when we stop over in Perth for Dads birthday, how good is that for planning ? Next years cruise hopefully sees us finally doing the Thames Ring in company with Lazy Otter, and a big ship cruise of Ireland if all things work out. Till next time, Cheers Tasotter

With rain this morning we had a lie in, and changed the plan to a day at RHS Wisley. I first started working there in 1976, so have seen plenty of changes over the year. Let’s go for a walk…..

First of all you have to get thru all the roadworks associated with the Wisley A3 / M25 bypass, then into the mega car parks, remember where you’ve left your car ! The entrance area is beautifully landscaped with pleached limes and smoke bush.

It’s a bit warm, let’s get a cuppa. Too busy at the restaurant already, head for the Glasshouse Cafe, it’s past the lake and stand of pines

The Cafe is busy as well, with wildlife all around ! Ducks on the table, Crows on the chairs and a lovely Robin posing for us !

Let’s go to the glasshouse before it’s too busy. LOOK, a new Orchid Exhibit area is being prepared ! We’ll miss the opening, but when I mentioned that I used to be the Orchid Student they invite me in. I talk about the old days, they seem genuinely interested but it’s just an old guy reminiscing 😀

Let’s continue our stroll, first thru the temperate then tropical sections.

That was so good to see the Orchids coming to the forefront again, I look forward to visiting in the future. Let’s head up to the Rock Garden.

It’s lunchtime now, a quick snack at Hilltop, site of my old glasshouses, then onto Battlestone Hill. This is where I first started working, and gained my love of Rhododendrons.

The old trials fields have been replaced by a lake ! At least the trees screen some of the A3 traffic noise. Time to head down to the herbaceous borders.

The back of this area has been transformed into the allotments, a smaller version of the trials field. It’s beautiful with wildflower mixes and sweet peas. Lovely to look at, even better to smell!

We’re continue on thru the roses towards the walled gardens now

Let’s head to the old lab now, it’s just been opened to the public and gives a wonderful view of how Wisley has evolved with pictures and exhibits.

Did you enjoy your walk ? Tired, but you have been on your feet for 5 hours ! There’s still the shop and plant centre to look at, don’t forget something for Mum ! Time to rest up, 6 locks tomorrow on a trip to Weybridge and back with a celebratory dinner at the Anchor.

We had a late start yesterday, going from Guns Mouth to our Marina, 8 locks and a stop in Guildford to help sort out my UK debit card problem. The Natwest staff couldn’t have been more helpful, even lending me their phone! It did help that one member has a Sea Otter in our Marina, thanks Wey Otter 👍 We did tangle with Oak again, the 70’ boat which had got stuck against the Guildford Weir. This time he was caught on a 90 degree bend…..we towed him off 😁

On going past Cartbridge Basin we noticed that Geoff the owner was in his office, so did a quick turnabout and dropped in again. He showed us around, and indicated a 30’ Chevron berth available…..SOLD

After 10 years at Pyrford we decided it was time for pastures new, especially as our friend Penny offered to move PT around September 1st. The facilities are better, cheaper and cleaner, with a slipway in case we want to trailer. It’s closer for Penny as well, the only disadvantage being a lack of fuel in the Marina. A service station up the road could be used for emergency top ups.

Upstream is the New Inn at Send for food and drink, whilst slightly beyond are the Worsfold Gates and meadows area, perfect for jet lag recovery. We look forward to starting our cruise there next year.

Today we have visited Wisley Gardens, I’ll do a seperate post later. Tomorrow we are going to Weybridge by boat so I can re activate my card. We will come back to the Anchor for a celebratory dinner that evening, with packing on Saturday and the long flight home Sunday.

We had no mobile signal last night, so sorry no blog yesterday !

Yesterday was an easy day, with all the batteries and devices charged up overnight. We did 3 locks and then called into Cartbridge Marina to look at a possible new berthing spot. As we now have mobile mechanics looking after PT there is less incentive to stay at Pyrford. The bathrooms are a lot cleaner, it has a slipway and the washer/dryer is a real bonus for us. Close by is the ever popular New Inn at Send, who provided lunch…….Scampi and half a pint of cider ! It was cool as well, so after a bit more cruising to Worsfold Gates we managed a bit of maintenance. The touch up paint I bought from Australia was a perfect match, I also re vanished the interior of the rear doors and Hazel ‘Mr Sheen’d” the interior.

This morning was cool and still as well, with some beautiful reflections in the water, captured by Hazel and her camera.

After lunch in Guildford it was going to be an easy 2 lock run to Guns Mouth where we were going to catch up with our friend Penny. Farncombe Boat Hire had different ideas though….on arriving at Millmead lock a 70’ hire boat was wedged across the weir with a Day hire boat pulling it off. Fortunately they knew what they were doing, but it took a bit of cajoling to get them both in the lock, which Hazel and I helped with. I managed to get the day boat out, Prime Thyme in, then the 70’ out….I didn’t really want that boat trying to use the lock landing whilst PT was on it. He would weigh over 20 tons, and could put a serious dent in ours being handled by an inexperienced helmsman.

When we got to Catherine’s Lock another Day hire boat wanted to turn around in the narrow river, with no room to spare. I talked him into going thru the lock, turning in the weir stream and joining us going back thru the lock. I joined him on the boat to talk him thru but was asked if I could turn her, no problem and we were soon thru. It was a birthday cruise for an 89 year old, who was fast asleep in the cabin, on leaving we received 2 pieces of lemon cake, yum 😁 They passed us once we tied up, the old boy helming her and just getting around a bend in the river without getting stuck on the bank ! Well done sir ! I hope I can still go boating at 89 😳

Penny found our mooring later on, so a celebratory G and T was had, till we cruise again. She has certainly helped with this long distance boating 👍, and offered to move PT if we change Marina. Marks and Spencer’s salmon fillets expertly cooked by Hazel finished a full day.

After writing last nights blog things got a bit noisy, with little inflatables racing each other up and down the mooring. After a long days cruising in the full sun I turned into Mr Grumpy and shouted at them to cut it out….no breaking wash on the Thames is the rule. Instead they moved onshore and turned up the music. After a quick consult with the Thames Lock lock keeper on the Wey, confusing isn’t it ? He allowed us to stay in the bottom pound, so long as we were ready to roll at 9am

Bliss, our own private mooring with lawn, much appreciated.

Today we have slowly made our way up the Wey to our mooring at Pyrford. We’ve meet some lovely people but found the Thames a bit crowded, and way to hot ! Last years cruise in Autumn was certainly a lot quieter, and cooler.

We have 6 days left, enough time for a cruise to Guildford, visit to Wisley Gardens, and pack.

An overcast morning saw is set off early to Boveney Lock, which like yesterdays first lock was non operative. Somebody had pressed too many buttons and we had to wait for the lockie to reset it. This was most fortuitous as we meet Robert and Graciela aboard Sweet Love. I recognised their boat as an America Ranger Tug, which they had imported into the UK to do some boating. They were a lovely couple who gratefully listened as we explained the locking procedure, and discussed boats. Good luck guys, they were thinking of taking the boat to Holland next !

We pushed on thru the next couple of locks, till Windsor Castle appeared, and all the airplanes departing Heathrow.

The trees bordering the Crown Estate were covered in some impressive clumps of Mistletoe

We then ran along Runnymede and Magna Carta, now packed with people as it’s the W/E and the suns out

After 6 hours cruising we passed thru Shepperton lock, and the entrance to the River Wey. We’ve found some mooring at the back of Desborough Cut, but it’s crowded and noisy. We might move onto the River Weys Thames Lock landing stage later on, and go thru first thing next morning.

We had a slightly later start today, our main objective being to get downstream of Bray Lock, which is having numerous breakdowns at present, some of them taking half a day to fix. Our first lock was only a mile downstream of the last one, the shortest pound on the Thames. We moored up behind another narrowboat,only to be told the lock had “frozen”, no amount of button pushing could do anything ! Fortunately the lockie appeared at 9am and reset the lock computer, straight thru !

As most of the pounds (river between locks) are short, little convoys of boats form. With the Gin Palaces overtaking the slower narrow boats there is gradual change, but you usually re form at each lock if it’s not immediately available. The river traffic is increasing, as are the riverfront house values.

We got thru Bray Lock ok, and are ahead of schedule, so dropped pins above Windsor. We aim to catch up with Penny and Iris around Desborough on Sunday. It’s about 6 hours cruising to get there, so with 2 days we can relax, especially if the sun continues to shine.

An early start saw us head off with our “solar” powered narrowboat ! As it was sunny and hot, we’ve had no problems so far. First stop for services, then onto Reading where we topped up with fuel

We aimed to get thru Henley, now in the final stages of preparation for the rowing regatta. It was extremely busy, but we found a mooring spot to re provision. We decided to push on to Hurley whilst it was still sunny.

We paced a couple of canoes for a while, they slipstreamed our wake and had a chat. They looked hot, at least I’ve got an umbrella hooked up to the tiller so my top half is in shade. I still got very warm today, so had another swim in the Thames, lovely 😀 I’ll decontaminate myself Mark and Peter, honest 🌞😳

Last night after tea we noticed the low voltage indicator flashing on the fridge….after a bit of investigation and talking to our mobile mechanic, Gareth we deduced the house battery was running low. However further investigation by him today has revealed the alternator has failed again, like last year despite being rebuilt. Fortunately our recently reconditioned solar panel is working well, but it means we are totally reliant on solar now and must cut our power usage to a minimum in an effort to get back to Pyrford. With this in mind future blog posts will be at a minimum, and we hope the sunny weather continues. Tomorrow will be a long day as we hope to get back to the River Wey in 3 days, and wet weather at the W/E.