boatone
Well-Known Member
Following a pretty depressing period of heavy rain at the start of our main summer cruise upriver, I am pleased to say the weather did noticeably improve as the days went by and we enjoyed a positively delightful couple of days at the beginning of this week.
I did pretty much all I said I would do in my post before we left - I was nice to rowers (even stopped and offered to help one who fell out of his skiff), waved to narrowboats (the majority waved back) , let others get in front of me if they felt they had to (didn't they all - well, nearly all !), quietly waited at locks when necessary without getting stressed (only a couple of occasions where that proved necessary) and said thank you to the lockie - be he/she a regular, assistant or volunteer ( and I must say some of the volunteers in the upper reaches were positively delightful and M said that applied to some of the young guys as well
).
As reported earlier I did meet up with Byron and tried exercising a little gentle cajolement but, alas, to no avail. However, the weekend at Ashmount Towers with the Oxford Ditch was very pleasant and I even managed to get some of them up and dancing ! (No bacon sarnies for brekkie on the Sunday tho.....
)
Had some pretty good meals (the chips at the Broadface in Abingdon were truly historic and both food and service at the Old Post Office in Wallingford were excellent) and some not so good meals (why oh why did the Chequers in Marlow have to coat a really nice steak with sicky sticky stuff? - oh, and a certain establishment where we stopped for breakfast didn't do a very good job but a reasonable complaint resulted in no bill so we will give them another chance.)
Met or passed quite a few forumites including JoJoe, Sully & Brayman, and Oldgit and Mrs Oldgit helped us dispose of a free bottle at Loch Fyne in Henley after deciding driving up to see us was cheaper than a takeaway at their local chippy.
The Swan Uppers swept past us just above Shillingford and I waited patiently while a boat from one of Apollo's favourite clubs extricated itself from the bushes after keeping out of their way !
A very significant birthday for me last Monday saw us at Zizzis in Marlow for supper and a request for ' a nice table as its my birthday' resulted in free bubbly for the two of us 'on the house'.
So there we are. Bray to Abingdon and back over 11 days on less than a 100 litres of diesel with both engines running fine all the way (although I still haven't resolved the battery management probs but thats another story) .
I did pretty much all I said I would do in my post before we left - I was nice to rowers (even stopped and offered to help one who fell out of his skiff), waved to narrowboats (the majority waved back) , let others get in front of me if they felt they had to (didn't they all - well, nearly all !), quietly waited at locks when necessary without getting stressed (only a couple of occasions where that proved necessary) and said thank you to the lockie - be he/she a regular, assistant or volunteer ( and I must say some of the volunteers in the upper reaches were positively delightful and M said that applied to some of the young guys as well
).As reported earlier I did meet up with Byron and tried exercising a little gentle cajolement but, alas, to no avail. However, the weekend at Ashmount Towers with the Oxford Ditch was very pleasant and I even managed to get some of them up and dancing ! (No bacon sarnies for brekkie on the Sunday tho.....
)Had some pretty good meals (the chips at the Broadface in Abingdon were truly historic and both food and service at the Old Post Office in Wallingford were excellent) and some not so good meals (why oh why did the Chequers in Marlow have to coat a really nice steak with sicky sticky stuff? - oh, and a certain establishment where we stopped for breakfast didn't do a very good job but a reasonable complaint resulted in no bill so we will give them another chance.)
Met or passed quite a few forumites including JoJoe, Sully & Brayman, and Oldgit and Mrs Oldgit helped us dispose of a free bottle at Loch Fyne in Henley after deciding driving up to see us was cheaper than a takeaway at their local chippy.
The Swan Uppers swept past us just above Shillingford and I waited patiently while a boat from one of Apollo's favourite clubs extricated itself from the bushes after keeping out of their way !
A very significant birthday for me last Monday saw us at Zizzis in Marlow for supper and a request for ' a nice table as its my birthday' resulted in free bubbly for the two of us 'on the house'.
So there we are. Bray to Abingdon and back over 11 days on less than a 100 litres of diesel with both engines running fine all the way (although I still haven't resolved the battery management probs but thats another story) .
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