Up Hanwell Flight

The next day we went up Hanwell Lock Flight. The water is now so clear you can see the bottom and all of the fish. Unfortunately you can also see how much litter gets dumped into the canal.

The Hanwell Lock Flight has side pounds

The pounds are overgrown but the mechanisms are still there

A lifebelt put to good use by a duck as a nesting platform

Windmill Bridge - road over canal, canal over train - wow!

A day at Kew Gardens

We decided that, as we were not too far away that we would have a day out at Kew Gardens. We caught two buses from Hanwell, one to Ealing Broadway then another to Kew.

We visited the Palm House

Saw lots of very pretty flowers

And ferny things

Cuddled some columns

And some more

More pretty flowers

The Pagoda was open so we went up

Had a wonderful bird's-eye view of things

The Pagoda

The place where George III spent a lot of time

Why don't our look like this?

We caught the buses back to Hanwell and had a take-away curry for tea.

Kingston to Brentford

After Hampton Court Palace we stayed the night at Kingston-upon-Thames and had a wander round the shops before moving off towards Teddington Lock.

I am sure that bright yellow flower is Broom

Kingston-upon-Thames bridge

If we were in Hong Kong Harbour I am sure this would be called a junk

The approach to Teddington Lock

Richmond Lock

Brentford Lock & back on the canals again

Brentford

Leaving Brentford

 We stopped for the night at the bottom of the Hanwell Lock Flight

A day at Hampton Court Palace

We spent a wonderful day at Hampton Court Palace. We were moored up on the visitor moorings so access was easy and we didn't have far to go back for lunch.

We saw lots of chimneys

A Henry

And another Henry

The famous clock

We saw lots more too. The kitchens, the Chapel, the lovely ceilings and roof beams, the gardens and the special exhibitions. It was a wonderful day out.

The lower Thames

Alison joined us on Constance as she had finished her Archaeology dig for now. We were at Bray Marina which was convenient for us for a short stay.



We were moored behind the white boat

Our next place of interest was Windsor with its world famous castle

Windsor Castle

Windsor/Eton road bridge

A Thames house-boat

More Thames house-boats

It was raining and this amused us!

We spent one night at Runnymede and the next night on the visitor moorings immediately outside Hampton Court Palace in readiness for our planned visit the next day.








Slowly down the River Thames

We have plenty of time to go down the River Thames nice and slowly for a while. compared with the canal the Thames is wide. We are not used to this.

It makes us feel very small.

The locks are either manned for us or electrically operated. Easy!

There are some lovely Thames-side properties

Henley-on-Thames

Temple Island

Hurley Lock - what an idyllic spot!

Marlow Bridge

I believe she is one of the Dunkirk 'Little Ships

Marlow Weir

The Brunel Bridge at Maidenhead

This family were looking for their breakfast.

Aldermaston to the Thames

After Aldermaston we spent a few days at Tyle Mill before moving off through (among others) Garston Lock. This is the other example of a turf sided lock.

Then on to Fobney Lock. This caused us a bit of a problem as it was leaking faster than it was filling and took a lot of effort to pass through. Then you have the strong stream flows either side of the lock tail to deal with.

Filling Fobney Lock

The Mill Stream gets you from the left, the river from the right!

Then on into Reading with a passage through County Lock.

County Lock - Reading

Now we wait for the traffic lights to go green and its off down the roller-coaster ride through the Oracle Shopping Centre. We were too fast for the dinosaurs to catch us!

Into the Oracle shopping centre...

 

And out the other side. Now only Blake's Lock and we are on to the Thames.

The Thames is just through the bridges!