Sunbury on Thames

Friday morning  at 8am we left Maidenhead, 

no-one had been along to ask for the £8 mooring fee, which was nice ;) 

no mooring here ?

According to Nicholson's there are full services at Boveney Lock, the lock keeper directed us to the water point below the lock & a sharp right turn, as we came round the corner it made a nice change to see these 3 busy filling up ( instead of the ubiquitous  plastics)

 It was nb's Amarantine, Caipercaillie & Sarob 

Chatting to Ken & Lynda, nb Amarantine, whilst waiting (one slow tap) we were introduced to Max their 9 month old cat, who like Sid is trained to a lead. 

Sid & Max checking each other out

Max also like climbing trees & like Sid non too clever at getting down again.  You can read about their adventures here as they are also bloggers so another one on my blog roll.
They have fitted out Amarantine themselves including the very smart & professional cratch cover  which Lynda made. I was very impressed! Eventually it was our turn & we filled the water tank..

 then on passed Windsor Castle

 a dire warning not to moor here... click on pic to enlarge if text is too small

 & found a pleasant  National Trust mooring at Runnymeade in front of this grand old dutch barge
'De Witte Seep' 1897 

this beastie posed for a photo, it was huge with a 4" wingspan


The NT warden came to collect the £6 fee about 6pm, as we'd had a free one the night before we could hardly complain & it was a lovely spot. we spent most of the afternoon taking the cratch off again as still the earwigs abound... yuk.   We thought we would have had a disturbed night as we seemed to be directly under the flight path for Heathrow with planes noisily passing over every minute or so but either they eased off or we just slept through it. 
Mark spent Saturday morning tinkering with the batteries & I would have had a good clean up but the vacuum cleaner decided to pack up....
After lunch we made the decision to move on as the plane noise was getting a bit much, we stopped briefly in Staines when we spotted a handy mooring on the waterfront so a quick food shop & a new vacuum cleaner from Argos.

This barge moored near Staines caught our eye as it was registered in Hull ( our home town) Later I googled it & found an interesting  blog  by the owners Mary & Simon Sparrow. If you click on 'Mary's View' she recounts the story Misterton's restoration, I found it fascinating.
After leaving Staines we pottered along hoping to find somewhere to moor for at least the night but of course it's a warm sunny & busy  weekend on the Thames & no free ( meaning available, we got to the point we'd happily have paid up for a vacant spot!)  moorings. So onwards & eventually at 6pm we arrived at Sunbury Lock where, on the Nicholson Guide there is a blue M & I thought these maybe moorings at the lock, usually to be booked & paid for via the lock keeper. But just as we were getting fed up our luck turned, the helpful lock keeper directed us to turn sharp left after the lock, round the lock island to the free & practically empty long stretch of moorings outside the church. According to the lockie there is usually space here as they tend to get overlooked & as they are behind the lock island it's fairly quiet, just the job.



Soona does like an empty box...


I had planned to do the laundry on Sunday & put the new vacuum through it's paces but the gremlins that have dogged us this week hadn't quite finished with us yet, 18 months ago I had an attack of vertigo, it was horrible & yesterday morning as I got up the spinning started swiftly followed by nausea,  B****r! So I spent the day sitting very still & feeling sorry for myself.
This morning I got up carefully but felt fine, thank goodness... so the washing was done & soon out drying in the sunshine but the vacuuming will have to wait a day or two.