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River Thames Advice


Naughty Cal

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10 hours ago, dmr said:

Mixed memories of Dorchester, a few years ago did a late dash to the K&A but flood water caught us and spent a scary time just down from Days lock with rapidly rising levels. Once we were happy that boat was secured we had quite a few walks into Dorchester. Its all a bit fenced off these days but still a favorite overnight stop when doing K&A to Oxford. Goring and Pangbourne are good places too. Spent the "hottest" day last year (or was it the year before?) on the VMs at Goring lock, good shade from trees but constant "splat" from dropping plums.

Never been to Lechlade, that's for next year if this damn virus goes away.

Only have 11 or 12 years experience of inland boating but the Thames has lost something in this time, I dd like the posh old blokes in blazers etc, as you say, too many estate agents drinking Fray Bentos ?

 

................Dave

a sure sign of the deterioration is Boulter's Lock in Maidenhead.  What was once a picturesque spot is now a dreary back street location..  

 

 

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I came across this photo from the early 20th century.  Fascinating to see a heavy Canadian canoe casually loaded onto a posh steam launch, and what appears to be a motorised portacabin on a flat barge - a forerunner of a fat narrowboat?   

 

 

 

 

boulters-lock-maidenhead-early-1900s-PJXKN5.jpg

Edited by Murflynn
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17 minutes ago, Murflynn said:

a sure sign of the deterioration is Boulter's Lock in Maidenhead.  What was once a picturesque spot is now a dreary back street location..  

 

 

s-l640.jpg

 

 

 

Its not the Thames, its the Western End of the K&A, there's even a boat with no engine and a bloke pushing it along with his pole ?

 

We have actually done a couple of Thames locks looking a bit like this, but as I said, things of gone downhill and the standard of dress was not nearly so good.

 

................Dave.

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21 hours ago, Naughty Cal said:

We have taken the decision to change our planned holiday to Belgium next Easter for a break on the Thames instead, Covid restrictions allowing of course. We don't think that travelling to Europe will even be possible next year without a quarantine period afterwards.

 

Le Boat have been very good once again and have changed the booking again for us and given us extra credit to the account to the tune of an extra 10%. 

 

Unfortunately boat hire prices on the Thames are much more expensive than in Belgium so we have had to downgrade the boat from what we did have booked for Belgium. We will now be on Consul which is still a 4 berth flybridge cruiser but of a more traditional design that the Horizon we had booked previously.

 

consul.jpg.41ba206cd1a78e92ba017726adc7a8fe.jpg

 

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We have a week booked starting the 2nd April which is Good Friday from the Benson base.

 

So my question is can anyone recommend places to visit for this cruise please?

 

 

Have a look at Foxes afloat  episodes 110 to 120.     

 

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19 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

Thanks  all. Certainly some food for thought there.

 

It is Easter week so we expect it will be fairly busy. We didn't have a huge choice of available boats to pick from.

It may be (slightly) busy downstream of - say - Windsor but IME of 20 years on the River it never gets unpleasantly busy until Henley week(s) and then that's local - folks fiddling about picking up the moorings on the rowing course.

After Marsh Lock, the locks are smaller and boats get caught by the bottleneck and thins out, then you can make good progress if you've a mind to. The locals seem to only boat while there's a lock service (Lord knows why as they're so easy to operate) and by tea time you'll have the river to yourself. If you are hapy to moor away from the various official moorings, you can usually find a space if you don't mind tieing to a tree and using a gang plank to get ashore...

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14 hours ago, dmr said:

Oxford is good but Cambridge beats its hands down, that's a lovely boat trip.

 

Yes! We moor in Oxford but a graduate of the light blue.

 

If one likes art, the Stanley Spencer gallery in Cookham is an essential stop. The Ashmolean in Oxford is good too.

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27 minutes ago, Onewheeler said:

Yes! We moor in Oxford but a graduate of the light blue.

 

If one likes art, the Stanley Spencer gallery in Cookham is an essential stop. The Ashmolean in Oxford is good too.

Oxford is a big city and the university is part of it, but Cambridge sort of is the University and the whole place has a genteel almost festival atmosphere to it, but I was really thinking of the boating, the Nene/Middle level/Ouse etc is just wonderful.

 

.............Dave

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18 minutes ago, Loddon said:

(Pitt Rivers)

It's an esoteric collection of a Victorian diplomat who travelled the world (of his time)- thus it contains all sorts of items which are not connected to a particular theme. That makes it worth a visit because there are all sorts of artefacts. It used to be dark and a bit opressive (to reduce the items fading in colour). Being in an University, it's used a lot for research and the attendants are very knowledgeable.

It's situated behind the museum of Natural History - just off "The Broad" with its bookshops, Mathematical Museum et al.

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3 hours ago, dmr said:

Oxford is a big city and the university is part of it, but Cambridge sort of is the University and the whole place has a genteel almost festival atmosphere to it, but I was really thinking of the boating, the Nene/Middle level/Ouse etc is just wonderful.

 

.............Dave

Shhh, don't tell everyone.

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4 hours ago, OldGoat said:

It's situated behind the museum of Natural History - just off "The Broad" with its bookshops, Mathematical Museum et al.

I think you mean the Museum of the History of Science. It's scary when you find exhibits of things that you've owned or used.

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1 hour ago, Onewheeler said:

I think you mean the Museum of the History of Science. It's scary when you find exhibits of things that you've owned or used.

Umm - On my googled maps (and we all know that Google is the fount of all knowledge..)  it says Natural History,  which is on Parks Road.

Without scrabbkinbg around  further 'just now', especially as SHe Who Must is about to announce "Dinner is Served", methinks you are referring to what I call the 'museum of mathematics (etc), which is further back down 'The Broad', before you get to the Radcliffe Camera.

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12 hours ago, OldGoat said:

Umm - On my googled maps (and we all know that Google is the fount of all knowledge..)  it says Natural History,  which is on Parks Road.

Without scrabbkinbg around  further 'just now', especially as SHe Who Must is about to announce "Dinner is Served", methinks you are referring to what I call the 'museum of mathematics (etc), which is further back down 'The Broad', before you get to the Radcliffe Camera.

Yes. My wording could have been better. I blame the gin. History of science, by the Bodleian. Natural history is going towards the University Parks. A lovely building,

 

I'm always taken aback by how mediocre the view is from the roof of the Ashmolean. Nary a dreaming spire to be seen. A nice place for a drink though when it reopens.

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25 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

We will have the dog with us so museums will be off the agenda!

Beware the Thames hire boat, I think it was  Le Boat "Tango" from Benson.

 

Edited by Flyboy
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Windsor, when I lived near there was the cleanest town (streets) I ever knew. Don't bother with Old Windsor.... . Eton is next door across the Thames Bridge at Windsor. Well worth a look. You get a great view of the Castle from the moorings at Windsor. Good for the dog... massive field.

 

https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE3ODY2NTQ5ODYxMzg1NDEz?igshid=1iqu7qznkykak

 

 

Edited by mark99
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Just now, mark99 said:

Windsor, when I lived near there was the cleanest town (streets) I ever knew. Don't bother with Old Windsor.... . Eton is next door across the Thames Bridge at Windsor. Well worth a look. You get a great view of the Castle from the moorings at Windsor. Good for the dog... massive fields.

It might be the cleanest streets but when you are moored on the swimming pool side come dusk then the bank comes alive with the biggest rats I have ever seen. Mainly because of all the food that is left on the bank by people feeding the ducks.

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Oxford is great but as you can only get about 2 miles out due to your hire co's restrictions, maybe plan a day there after you drop the boat off at cockrell o clock. I am surprised that Cookham hasn't been mentioned lovely little village with several pubs if they have survived the lockdowns. plenty of moorings too unlike Windsor which used to be great but is now rather taken over by hire day boats, trip boats, cafe boats, and other retail opportunities  who have nicked the good moorings but they probably pay more.  Henley and Marlow are both good, but on my last two trips both have been difficult to moor in at 14.00. in fact we failed to find a space in Henley one time, but it was June.

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One really needs three weeks to experience the Thames.

 

Upper, Middle and Lower. Further downstream there is the worlds best house ? ..... Hampton Court. Moored outside the gold plated gates a few times. Mooring aside (which just needs nouce) is there a better UK River experience?

Edited by mark99
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10 hours ago, mark99 said:

One really needs three weeks to experience the Thames.

 

Upper, Middle and Lower. Further downstream there is the worlds best house ? ..... Hampton Court. Moored outside the gold plated gates a few times. Mooring aside (which just needs nouce) is there a better UK River experience?

We will see how we get on with the hire boat. If we enjoy it then we may well at some point stick NC back on the trailer and get her down that way for a couple of weeks.

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17 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

We will see how we get on with the hire boat. If we enjoy it then we may well at some point stick NC back on the trailer and get her down that way for a couple of weeks.

.................   but no speeding, please.

 

the Thames is (or should be) a very genteel place.     :rolleyes:

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