No room at Wallingford

Abingdon continued to try and melt us away......I managed a session in the pool again on Saturday but was unlucky on Sunday.   I went online too late and it was all booked up.  Saturday evening we had a lovely respite as friend Dick and Jackie cam to pick us up and take us to their house for a BBQ.  It was great to catch up and also to sit in their cool east facing garden.

Sunday I spent most of the day under the nearby trees.  Geoff made it to church but I couldn`t even face the walk there.

So Monday was yet another early start for a very
pleasant run down the river to Wallingford.  

En route we could only ogle all the lovely house which are way out of our price band......

At Benson lock Geoff had a very interesting conversation with a lady who was on a small plastic boat.  She informed him, for no apparent reason, that all people on narrowboaters were arrogant and that they should stay on the canals where they belonged!   This seemed somewhat harsh as we had squeezed up so that a bigger plastic boat could just get himself in.   Ah well...guess it takes all sorts......

On reaching Wallingford we were initially disappointed.  My hopes of mooring by the swimming pool faded rapidly when we saw that the whole place was full.  We tried a bit further downstream but any little holes were already taken.   However a swift about turn and not too far upstream we found a suitable spot under the trees.  It is actually much better than the moorings as it is in the shade mostly and whats more it is free!!  The moorings have gone up to £7 a night.  We have also heard that the mooring outside Tescos in Reading are now being charged at £9.50 per day even if you only stop to shop.......

mostly in the shade this will do for a few days.

We are close to the tow path and it is not far into town.   In fact if it were not for positioning ourselves by a station ready for the birth of the LoveGomm offspring we would probably stay here a bit longer.  D day is only 5 days away!!

TV reception good so after shopping and dog walking on Tuesday we were able to watch the RAF 100 celebrations.    This was a bonus on top of Wimbledon......I wont even mention the football......in which I have zero interest.

Later we were invaded by the grandchildren which was lovely.   Giles and Finley immediately stripped off and were in the river.   We obviously haven`t a lot of water under Petroc as Finley who is 9 could stand up alongside!  Oscar at 7 is not as keen on the water but spent his time climbing over and around the boat........I have forgotten how lively boys are at that age.   Giles reminded me that Finley is the age he was when we spent 3 years living on our catamaran.  Both he and Emma were the same and he used to shin up the mast with no problem amongst other things....how the memory fades.....

THIS IS MY SECOND ATTEMPT AT DOING THIS EDITION OF MY BLOG.   

In my attempt to feed into my facebook I somehow managed to lose the whole thing late last night.  My original method was via networked blogs.  However that has been discontinued and the replacement SYMPHONY is a paying service.  So I am now frustrated and I cant seem to find a simple way of linking the two.....

Total distance:13.13miles Elapsed time:4h13m59s Locks:4 Bridges:10
Average speed:3.22 mph (4.31 lock/mph)