Back on the Thames

The first plane flew over at 4.22 am this morning - what curfew?  Shortly after that Elaine decided it was time to get up (4.30am)!!!!!

I struggled out of bed at 6.00 am ...

We had to be up early as we were booked through the Thames lock at 6.30 am.  We stopped to top up with water first ... while I was waiting I spotted a Qantas A380 directly overhead - what a time to not have my camera to hand!


We passed through the Brentford lock and then onward ... in the early morning glare - there are no sun visors on narrowboats ...



We cruised up the deserted Thames on our own ... Nigels again!

It was a bit chilly first thing.  Elaine took the tiller for a while ...

Passing some impressive boatsheds ...

Into an empty Teddington lock.  Once through the lock we walked back to see the lockie where we sorted out and paid for a one week license ... he smiled as I slapped him with a fish - not another one he muttered!

We were going to stop in Kingston but all the moorings were full ... it was still silly o'clock, they were probably still in bed!

I love the mini hanging off the side of the wall at the mini dealership in Thames Ditton ...

We continued on and got a good mooring right outside Hampton Court palace ... not a bad result!

We squeezed in between some large GRP cruisers ...

I took the doggies for a good walk around Hampton Court.  There is plenty of coin in these parts, no charity shops on the high street here!   I also took a walk down to Molesey Lock as a flotilla of GRP Cruisers were going upstream; they all seemed to know each other.  They were such an amusing bunch ... very strong cockney accents, dripping in bling, shirts off and suntanned and that that was the blokes!  The women didn't need life jackets as they all had their own built in buoyancy devices ... they are very closely related to their Australian counterparts who reside on the Gold Coast - often described as flash trash (not that there is anything wrong with that!).

We went for another walk later in the day, through Bushy Park, where we spotted quite a few deer - but there were notices warning not to go near them with dogs especially at this time of year, so we did a u-turn back to the boat.

Nice police station in Bushy park ...

The day turned out very nice in the end, but as I am typing this I can hear a thunderstorm approaching.

Tonight's guests at the side hatch ... a very pushy bunch, this lot ...

We are now back into our 5-2 fast again - we gave up in London as there was just too much temptation!  We also switched on the TV tonight, which was another first for a month ... once again too much to do in London to even think about the idiot box.  Elaine has been getting her Home and Away fix tonight, so she is a happy little vegemite :)