A trip on the Thames

For what will probably be our last multi-day trip before we set out on our adventure, we took our friends William and Daphne for a weekend on the Thames.  We travelled down the Wey Navigation, sharing a couple of locks with 'Rowan' from Pyrford Marina.  The usual cheery lock keeper at Thames Lock saw us out onto the Thames and then we headed downstream which was new territory for us.

Hampton Church

Despite only setting off at midday and stopping for lunch we reached Molesey and moored within sight of Hampton Church.opposite Platt's Eyot (a small island in the river).  We welcomed Helen's cousin, Nina, and her dog Rastus in the evening as we were moored right beside her regular dog walk.  A comfortable night followed with William and Daphne giving the new convertible bed the thumbs up.  Nina returned in the morning to wave us off.

William at the tiller passing Hampton Bridge

We carried on downstream, but recognising that we would have to return against the current we decided not to go down to Kingston Bridge as we had intended but turned around Raven's Ait (another island) opposite Surbiton and headed back.  Even with a detour round the old river at Desborough by Shepperton we still managed to get back to the Marina by around 5 pm on the Sunday.  This delightful trip gave us some ideas for further improvements, most notably to put LED lights throughout the saloon and galley and to put a shelf in the rear locker and one in the front step.


Only a few weeks to go now before we set off on our long trip. We're both quite excited about going.