Wednesday 12th May – Hampton Court Palace to Bovney Lock (Windsor)

09.00 – 17.40

21.7 miles, 9 locks

We were all up early this morning, long before the alarm went off. It was a fabulous morning too, with blue clear skies and sunshine again, although a layer of frost on the roof showed that the temperature had dropped overnight.

I took myself off for a little wander with my camera, and was surprised to find that much of the grounds of Hampton Court Palace were open, so I was able to wander round Lizzie’s back yard and take a few pics. The formal gardens and the Palace didn’t open to the public until ten, long after we’d be on our way, but it was still very pleasant to stroll round in the peace and quiet, soaking in the sunshine.

The rose garden was immaculately laid out, which made it all the more of a surprise when I turned round a corner through a gate and found a lovely woodland area, full of knee high grass and an abundance of wild flowers. Only the outer edges of the grass had been mown, leaving a beautiful wildlife haven.

I wasn’t sure how long I’d been out, as I never wear a watch on our holidays, so I didn’t have a clue what time it was, so I decided to give up on trying to find the famous maze and headed back to the boat, only to meet up with R.J. and Christine, who had decided to come for a walk round themselves. We had great fun in the walled rose garden, watching a stand-off between a squirrel and a magpie. The magpie won, and I have a rather terrible but funny shot of the victorious bird cackling as the squirrel hung on with one back claw before he fell head first into the wisteria.

Cruising was again uneventful and even though we did nine locks, it was absolutely no effort as the lock-keepers did all the work. All we had to do was to cruise in, throw up bow and stern ropes and let him do the rest. It did have a certain novelty value to start with, but after two or three of these we were wishing we were back on the canal network again. All the locks were beautifully kept, and apart from one rather bored and indifferent looking lock-keeper, the rest were very friendly and chatty.

Christine had been designated Chief Chucker Upper, and it was her job to throw up the bow rope, hopefully for it to land over a bollard so that she could keep the bow into the side of the lock. Although it would have made more sense for me to do it, being taller (ah bless, she’s only four foot nothing and a bit…!) I don’t have a lot of strength for throwing ropes as I had a frozen shoulder a little while back, and although it’s totally recovered now, I just don’t have the strength that I used to. I must say, for a tiddly peep she did very well with her up chucking, and was complimented on a few occasions by the lock-keepers.

Approaching Windsor Castle, we were a bit disappointed to find that we were facing into the sun, which meant that a lot of our photo’s weren’t very well exposed, but we did get several nice shots of horses and carriages and plenty of equestrian goings-on, which we learned was the Royal Windsor Horse Show. A few miles later on, after several twists and turns on the river, we got a very close up and beautifully lit view of the castle, so both myself and Christine were quite happy. R.J. as usual, didn’t take a single picture. I think he’s taken just one since we began this holiday!

We moored for the night on a very nice mooring area at Eton College Rowing Club, where sat in the evening sunshine for a couple of Guinness’s before settling down for a full roast dinner with all the trimmings – roast pork, roast potatoes, various vegetables and R.J.’s famous Yorkshire puddings washed down with a nice bottle of red wine. We don’t exactly skimp on food on our boating holidays!

Although it’s been a very good couple of days, we’ll both be very glad when we get off the Thames and back onto the canal system. Beautiful it may be, and in some stretches it’s absolutely idyllic, but we both came up with the same word to describe it…boring! We rather like the narrow, twisting wooded areas, but we are suffering from severe lock deprivation!