Day 11

25 miles: 8 locks: 7 litres of Pimms remaining

It's a beautiful summer's evening, I'm sitting on the deck of our boat with a glass of Pimms, birds tweeting as they settle for the night, church bells ringing (now in tune) and swans asking for food. It's perfect. 

Today we continued our journey along the River Thames. It is much easier and faster, we were assisted at nearly all the locks (electronic) by a lock keeper and there weren't that many or much time to wait when we were there. Anthony was frustrated because he wanted to operate the locks, and couldn't understand why the lock keeper did it. I think he prefers canals to rivers. I think for interesting features, I prefer the canals, but I can appreciate why Matthew prefers travelling on the river. It's much more relaxing for him because it is wider and deeper. 

We did moor after lunch so Matthew could have a rest, it's been a long, hard week and a half. Anthony, Charlotte and I sat on the deck, play Uno, fed the ducks and did some bird spotting with the binoculars. We've spotted lots of wildlife today, coots, Canadian geese, swans, mallard ducks and drakes, herons, some other ducks that weren't in our wildlife book and I saw a yellow-green frog hopping alongside one of the locks. 

This afternoon, I had a go at steering the boat - I think I understand how it works a bit more but I'm really not very good. We were zig zagging all over the Thames, and Matthew said that I kept veering left, which is a problem when you are meant to travel on the right! My problem is I simply can't see far enough, so I can't see where the boat is meant to be going. I soon gave the tiller bar back to Matthew, but Anthony asked if I was going to have another driving lesson! 

We are moored at Maple Durham, we need to wait for the lock keeper in the morning so we decided to stop here. It has been interesting travelling along the Thames, it is so different to the canals, it is used much more for recreational use, often by people hiring boats/canoes etc for the day. We helped a family today who had hired a Canadian canoe, but their son had a nose bleed so we gave them some tissues. They were really interested about our boat and our journey on it. I love the way that being on the water is so sociable, you stop and talk to people more, and it's really interesting hearing everyone's stories of why they are on the water. 

Tomorrow we will be arriving at Reading and then travelling on from there to Thatcham. We're nearly home, our estimated day of arrival is probably Sunday lunchtime, assuming we don't get caught up in the Reading festival attendees!