Ships that pass in the night and the Long Wait

31^st July 2015

Runnymede to Weybridge

7.75 miles, 4 locks

This was a day of locks, houseboats and a deal of chaos.

The nearer we get to London the prettier the locks become.  The landscaping/planting is still being done in conjunction with the same garden centre.Bell Weir lock has some rather interesting murals to do with the Magna Carta

Things were a little tight in Chertsey Lock, but we all made it safely.

We stopped outside Chertsey lock for water - we were all busy when we were aware of a lot of shouting.  The next next lot of boats coming through were emerging when the one at the front decided to slow to a stop, to turn down towards the weir to go on to the other side of the water point.  What they had not thought about was all the boats behind them.  The shouts were coming from this boat 'We can't stop - we have not brakes'.  'Reverse' the boat in front told them.  'We have no reverse' came the reply!!  Not only did they not appear to have any means of control, they also had two very small children on board.  I think we were glad to see them go ahead of us!

Shepperton is exceptionally well kept - it won the 'best kept lock' in 2001 and 2012.  What happened after that you might ask - they stopped the competition.

You can even stop and buy a cream tea!

The Magna Carta was going down before us - it all looks really sumptuous, but you need a few pennies to take a trip on her - £3250pp for 6 days_from May-2nd Oct!  It does include all your food and drink!

As we passed Staines the Cleddau crew spotted this fuel barge - we pulled over and filled up.  It was £1.50  a litre in Henley!

Then came our first 'ship passing' - fellow bloggers George and Carol on Still Rockin.  A lot of frantic waving went on!  We hope to meet up later in the trip.  Having just caught up with their blog it looks as though they moored in the same place as we did at Runnymede and got help mooring from the same man as we did.  (He comes from nb Tuppence).

This was the first houseboat we spotted - a real project that we think will be fantastic when it is done.  The wood work has been done very well.

This looks as though it could be quite palatial inside

And what is this made from - it looks like a large sewage type pipe?

We made it to Weybridge - there was one mooring when we arrived but there were two fishermen in situ.  We moved in very slowly explaining we just had to stop and it was a marked mooring. There was a bit of mumbling to start with, but it all ended up very amicably.  Our patience waiting for them to pack up was rewarded with an agreement that they were only planning on staying for another 10 minutes or so anyway and thanks from them for our consideration.  We breasted up, but were lucky that the boat ahead moved off, so Cleddau could move up.

The downside of the mooring - duck donations!  Chris' first job involved a scrubbing brush, river water and his shoes!

The upside - the view - we were right opposite the entrance to the River Wey (red arrow) - we had been warned by Sue from nb Retirement No Problem that the sign was obscured by trees, so we knew what we were looking for.

The end of the day we were rewarded with a good view of the blue moon - the next one is not due until 31 January 2018.

1^st August 2015

Weybridge to Newark Lock

6.25 miles 6 locks

And so it was onto the eighth waterway of our trip - the River Wey.  It is nice to be welcomed, but by golly you need to be patient.  At the first lock you have to pay your licence to be on the river - £116 for 3 weeks!  There were five boats ahead of us and it took the best part of two hours!! Our 'long wait'! Monty and I wandered off and found a good park for a run round.

The first lock is worked for you, but after that you are on your own.  Quite a few of the locks have these platforms to work the paddles from - I am not keen!

Coxes lock is very pretty

But at New Haw lock the Captain from nb Cleddau and I got the surprise of our lives - a flotilla of canoes waiting to go down the lock!!  Apparently they see this as a safer option than crossing the busy road!  We stood back and let them get on with it hoping that no one would fall out.  They did make it safely, but it was alarming to watch.

Then someone got caught in the act!  I had taken my lunch to the bow as the river was quite bendy and it is good to have a look out.  Chris and I had shared a sausage roll - the pastry was not brilliant, so I left some of it.  I put in on the opposite bow locker and was distracted by instructions from Ken on nb Cleddau.  I turned back to find someone finishing off the pastry!!  Monty is not that much of a 'foodie', but obviously the temptation at his nose level was just too much!!

Back to locks and this brings a whole new meaning to 'pulling the chain'!

And then to our next 'passing ship' - Retirement No Problem with Sue, Penny and Meg.  Sue and I have been corresponding by email for quite a while - this was our first meeting.  We slowed and chatted and hope to meet up on our way back down the Wey.

We moored for the night on meadows just past Newark Lock.  A nice peaceful mooring with lots of room for Monty to run.

2^nd August 2015

Newark Lock to Cart Bridge, Send

2 miles, 1 lock

When we went to bed last night there were two fishermen between our boats (we were quite a long way apart).  They were quiet, so no problem at all.  That was until we got up in the morning.  To say I was shocked when I went out with Monty was the understatement of the year!

They must have consumed all the beer in the box and they were scattered all over quite a wide area.  We did remove the plastic can holder, but the rest was just too much.  I did email the NT Wey contact address and have had a reply, but when I talked to the office at Dapdune Wharf she told me that they are having big problems with Eastern Europeans, but that was the first time she had heard of them fishing there.  We did wonder how they got home with all their kit with all that beer inside them!?

We had been told that we might see cyclists today and did we - well yes we did - thousands of them!  They kept coming in streams for a very long time.  We did wonder if they were on a local circuit until we heard the news in the evening when we realised they were part of 'Ride London' .

At our one lock today a huge 'island' of reeds needed to be hauled out of the way to allow us to open the top locks and escape.

It was just a 'dirty dart' today to get to Cart Bridge, Send where a table for 10 was booked for 13:30.  Who were the extra people - our brother in law, his younger son and his wife with their 4 boys - the youngest is only 3 months old, hence only 10 to eat.  We  were moored quite early with one boat between us.  It was a lovely day and we had the side hatch open and all of a sudden I felt I was being asphyxiated - the great clouds of fumes were overwhelming.  The cause - the boat in front taking off.

We have not had a Sunday roast since leaving home in June and I was really looking forward to roast beef with Yorkshire pudding and all the trimmings.  Imagine my disappointment to find that the pub does not do Sunday lunch!  Still the food was okay and the catch up with the family was the most important thing.  After lunch we repaired to the boat for coffee/squash and cake.  There was plenty of space to set up chairs etc and spread out under a tree.

Monty revelled in the attention and what was good to see was the young man patting him here who has recently overcome a fear of dogs.  It was good to see you all.

and thanks to brother in law, Mike, for acting as 'delivery boy' and bringing three parcels for Monty - one of which is a new life jacket - we got his previous one when he had not finished growing, hence it needed replacing.

Runnymede

Thursday 30^th July

Chris, Monty and I went off on Wednesday evening for a much needed walk – we headed east along the river and came across a very large park where we found this newly erected bronze of Her Majesty the Queen 

The park is large with what could be marvellous moorings – if only the council would allow it.  As most places round here charge they could boost their coffers!

Thursday was to be a day off for us all and an outing was planned.  First stop was the tea rooms at the Magna Carta site where we purchased sandwiches and sausage rolls to sustain us on our walk, or maybe it should be called a 'pilgrimage'?  

The next stop was to ‘The Jurors’ - An artwork by Hew Locke commissioned by Surrey County Council and the National Trust to mark the 800^th anniversary of the sealing of the Magna Carta in 1215.

They are twelve intricately worked bronze chairs that stand together on this ancient meadow. Each chair incorporates symbols and imagery representing concepts of law and key moments in the struggle for freedom, rule of law and equal rights. The Jurors is not a memorial, but rather an artwork that aims to examine the changing and ongoing significance and influences of Magna Carta. Twelve intricately worked bronze chairs stand together on this ancient meadow. Each chair incorporates symbols and imagery representing concepts of law and key moments in the struggle for freedom, rule of law and equal rights. The Jurors is not a memorial, but rather an artwork that aims to examine the changing and ongoing significance and influences of Magna Carta.

The above is a short extract from this site.  If you want to know more please go and take a look, but I would urge you if you live fairly close, or are passing this way to go and visit for yourselves.  On Thursday it was busy. It was lovely to see so many people looking, sitting, chatting and touching.  The chairs are very tactile and beautifully made.  Each one tells a story on the front and back.  There are flowers, keys and stoats (ermine) around the edge of the seats and on the legs – they all have a meaning that is pertinent to the tenets of the Magna Carta.  Boatwif and I went back on Friday early in the morning – we both appreciated being the only ones there and we were able to enjoy the magnificence of this artwork in peace and quiet.  There are a few photos below, but I am not going to inflict all 24 (fronts and backs) on you!  You can get all the information on all the stories on the above site.  

I have chosen one front and one back which I felt were pertinent to our trip;

I chose this one in tribute to guide dog Oakley and his mistress Tracey from nb Sola Gratia.
In 1920, marches of blind trade unionists from across the UK converged on Trafalgar Square under the banner 'Justice not Charity' in support of the Blind Persons Act, which became law later that year and established disability rights as a fundamental principle in British society.

And this as we had recently passed through Reading.
Oscar Wilde's poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol describes the brutalising effect of the prison system, published in 1898 whilst in exile in France and based on his observations when incarcerated for homosexual offences in 1895.

Then onto the JFK Memorial and a short journey onto American soil.  There is a pathway of 60,000 individual axe-hewn Portuguese granite setts, which rise sharply through the surrounding woodland.  There are 50 steps (I am almost a compulsive ‘counter’ when faced by a flight of steps/stairs be they up or down – I just wish I had read the information board before climbing (there were people crowded round) it would have saved me counting!) which represent the 50 US states.

The centrepiece of the memorial is a seven ton block of Portland Stone carved from a 14 ton block of Roach Bed Stone.  Shell markings within the block suggest the stone is 100 million years old.  

The  Seats of Contemplation which are deliberately detached from the threshold steps, giving the impression of leading into the future like Jacob’s Ladder.  The steps lead to two seats that are larger than normal.  The second seat is slightly smaller than the first and is turned slightly inwards.  The seats symbolise the King-Queen relationship.  Equally they could be seen to represent the President-Consort relationship.

Finally at this level there is the Memorial to the Magna Carta – something I am sure you are all aware of, so need no more information.  This was our first visit to Runnymede and it was of particular interest to us as in 1976 to mark the Bicentennial of the American Declaration of Independence the Lincoln Cathedral copy of the Magna Carta was sent to the United States to be displayed in various cities finishing up in San Francisco.  The problem was how to transport something that is priceless?  The solution was to send it out and back in a Vulcan Bomber from RAF Waddington.  Chris was one of the crew who brought it home. At one of the staging posts on the way back Chris had to sleep in a hangar underneath the aircraft with armed guards on the doors.  Thankfully the document had a trouble free journey both ways across the North Atlantic"Pond".

From here we started the climb up to the Air Force Memorial to airmen and women from all over the world who died in WWII. 

 It was a fabulous walk much enjoyed by the four of us and Monty – seventh heaven for him!  .  

We did wonder about this rather tatty sign, but did not divert to find out what it was.  Did they mean to spell 'Runniemead' that way one wonders?

 Once up there we made our base at a convenient bench and took it in turns to eat lunch whilst dog sitting and then visiting the memorial.  

It is hard to find the words to describe how evocative and poignant the memorial is.  

There are 292 columns of names - most have around 80 names.

It was the individual tributes from poppies by a loved one's name

To requests for people related to one of the names to get in touch

a letter from a daughter to the father she never knew

and a letter to 'Jill' from a Squadron Leader who was subsequently killed that I found the most moving.

The view from the top over London is magnificent.

With a good zoom you can just see nb Tentatrice - nb Cleddau is behind the trees!

Planes can be seen sitting on the runway at Heathrow

And it is fitting in many ways that so many planes fly over this memorial every day.