Up At Sparrows!!

We did it, we got up earlier than the Sanity crew!
5.00am to be precise, we had no water and we didn't want to lose our cherished spot.

Creeping away at idle speed ...


Turning into Little Venice ...

And filling with the precious stuff ...

Reversing back to spin around ...

Good morning Mr Heron!  "What's so bloody good about it", he replied....I know our dogs can talk, but a talking heron, what the?!

Back to the mooring - no probs! So what do we think of this early morning malarky? Crap!  We went back to bed for a couple of hours, although, to be fair, we had been kept awake by junk yard dog and his mates a couple of boats down.

We decided, as it was another hot sunny day, we would go down to the Thames and chill.

This is the lunchtime crowd in Paddo basin ... free deck chairs, free table tennis and that free football game we used to play in the pubs when I was 18!

Lots of action outside St Mary's hospital today!  It's really gearing up now ...we noticed an Aussie current affairs program has staked their claim to a spot ...

Onto the tube we went - the boys are well used to it now - the tube travelling public doesn't seem to approve though!  Don't know why ... they are so well behaved, they haven't puked on anyone yet!

I wasn't taking a picture of the bus here ... it's the grass - it's starting to go very Aussie looking with all this sun and no rain; I don't want to mention the drought word, but I fear its not far off!

No explanation required. ...

Ditto ...

"Can we go up the shard?"   "Bugger off, it's too expensive."  Told you they can talk.

Tower of London and a Gherkin ...

"Can we go on a ferry then?"  "No, we will try and take our boat down there later."

Can you ever get enough of this beautiful bridge?

Er No ...

This ain't bad either ...

The boys were getting a bit hot - luckily we found this wonderful stream running through the building!  Don't think it was an open sewer!

That's better!  I think Sammie has a defective Hypothalamus.

Nearly there ...

And here we are Horniman at Hays ...
Bonus, we got a waterfront seat!

It's nice inside too.  Funny story....a lady beggar came round all the tables except ours...we have become grubby boaters! 

Here is today's, I-love-my-new-camera shot.....see the middle of the top span! 

There it is! 

What a bonus, the bridge went up! 

To let the Thames barge 'Gladys' motor through ... 

So, after a bit of a long (late) lunch it was gone 17.00 and time to join the rush hour crowds ... 

No seats boys SIT. The tube trains really do rattle and shake around but we feel this is all good for the dogs as in if we do go back to Oz one day they will take the plane noises in their stride. 

We walked past the Front of St Mary's on the way back to the boat to see if Kate had arrived yet.  She hadn't...I think the press guys are getting bored ... we took a few pics of some of the tags they have been putting on their ladders etc.  They have a sweep running as well to guess the date and time of birth.

Another fantastic day in the best city in the world!

Onto Weedon Bec

There weren't a lot of boats moving this morning when we left Braunston, we even managed to wash one side of the boat on the water-point!

It was also the start of the double locks for the foreseeable future ... we much prefer the single locks and 'do your own thing' scenario.

We sent off into the first lock on our own, but we did notice a boat coming along the Braunston straight once we started rising in the lock.

We waited for them at the next lock, then had a long wait whilst the C&RT guys filled the pounds as they were a bit low.  We sat in the lock by the Admiral Nelson for ages before they let us move on  ... should have popped in for a swift one, well worth a look when you are in these parts.


When we left the top lock the queue to go down stretched back to tunnel ...

 

Into the tunnel we went.  It is nice to go into a wide tunnel for a change, we only met one boat coming the other way.

We were soon at Norton Junction.

Only 89 1/4 miles to London....woohoo

We shared the Buckby Lock Flight with a hire boat, nice bunch of people onboard ...

We stopped for the night by Whilton Marina.  Elaine started cutting up her soap whilst I touched up a bit more battle damage.  But ... 'Houston we had a problem'.  We couldn't get a decent satellite fix!  There is a French programme we have been watching called 'The Returned' - usual sort of thing people returning from the dead etc... We moved on and ended up at Weedon Bec; it was a real lovely cruise, so we cracked open some champers and had a few beers, the reason being ... 'cos we can I suppose :)

So .... we watched the programme, but I am still trying understand what its all about ... and now feel very tired.

Night All xx