One man in a boat

[KeithD]

Life would be terrible if it were all the same. It's the contrasts that give it substance. There is no pleasure without pain etc. So against the background of tales of Loch Shiel and the coast to coast epic along Loch Ness, I offer this contrasting trip from Wargrave to Maidenhead on the River Thames. The journey detailed by Jerome K Jerome in his 1889 classic was a bit longer than mine - but then there were three of them (and a dog).

I started at Wargrave to the east of Reading where my wife dropped me as close as she could get to the old ferry.

I set off downstream ...

..and into the Hennerton Backwater which leaves the main channel on the right immediately past the St George and Dragon pub. This quiet stream flows through the gardens of expensive Thameside properties ..

.. and under several access bridges, one of which requires a limbo.

Some of the owners would like to think of this backwater as their own private stream but its not.

It amused me to think I was enjoying it for free with their presence adding to my interest while they had paid a fortune for their enjoyment to be lessened by my paddling through their "private" domain.

After a mile or so I rejoined the main channel on the approach to Marsh Lock.

After all last weeks rain the locks were displaying "amber boards" (red restricts the movement of unpowered craft) so after a friendly caution from the lock keeper I was passed through into Henley Reach.

The river here was busy with rowing teams in training for the numerous regattas which are held up and down the Thames.

Under Henley Bridge brought me to the regatta course. and then , as I approached Temple Island I was passed by several day launches packed with what I think were Hari Chrishna "nuns" (You don't get many of them on Lock Shiel!!).

They were obviously enjoying their trip, singing (with tambourine accompaniment), laughing and splashing each other. I have a dim recollection of the Beatle, George Harrison, endowing some sort of Hari Chrishna temple hereabouts (not the one that the island is named for).

As I moved on through Hambleden Lock the number of people walking the tow path reduced noticeably. Passing many fewer riverside houses I moved again into what passes here as open countryside.

The traditional craft of the Thames are alive and well with punting (like polling but with picnic hampers) and camping skiffs still to be seen.

All too soon I was at Hurley Lock, my home for the evening.

The call of the paddle was replaced by the call of the pub and the end to a perfect day.



I can actually hear the call of another pub right now so I'll post details of day two tomorrow.

[John]

Excellent Blogg


Yup, variety's the sice of life

[Quercus]

Great stuff

looking forward to part two.

Q

[Newbond]

Nice blogg, Keith.

Looked a little posh around there.
Some of those properties were almost the size of mine!

Looking forward to the 2nd instalment.

Sean

[packman]

is how the trip looks,no mention of midges, pics illustrate the journey well. i guess i will have to log on tomorrow night for part two also...another thing ....i think i hear the song of the cross keys...or is it the crown,what a dilemma, what to do.....you are dead right!!!i will visit them both, see ya

[86inch]

Cracking Blogg... can't wait for the next installment...!

[LAS247]

Fantastic, shows there is good paddling other tan the Lakes & Scotland.

[TGB]

Great blog, looking forward to part 2.
Peaceful waters, sunshine and punts too; one nneds little else in life.

TGB

[Lakeland Pete]

Great blogg, the pics are good and show that you had crackin weather for your epic voyage.

You certainly get some piles along the side of the river, must be oh so nice to have a river at the bottom of your garden, just a damn shame about these cheap-skate canoeists

...to the old ferry.

Perhaps a job prospect if strapped for cash?

Could almost be a taxi on the lower rivers in asia.



Look forward to your blogg part 2.

Pete

[lochmaben]

Nice blogg Keith looking forward to part two.
Thanks Alan

[SunburyAndy]

Great blog Keith,

You did well to find the launch site, it took me about 20 minutes the first time around Tip - looks for Ferry Lane (a bit of a give away!) at the traffic lights in the centre of Wargrave

It is also worth noting to future visitors that the lane leading down to the river is very narrow with restricted parking. Whilst it is a public road and launch site due respect should be shown to the local residents. (I suppose that goes with out saying to SotP members)

I also read somewhere that one of the big houses on Hennerton Water was owned by an eccentric old girl who used to allow people to camp on here lawn!! Sadly I belive she has passed away. I don't suppose the new owner will be as welcoming

Look forward to the rest of your blog on my favourite bit of the Thames.

[Chrish]

Where's the fun with no midges and no rain going horizontally????

[KeithD]

By Hurley Weir, a little higher up, I have often thought that I could stay a month without having sufficient time to drink in all the beauty of the scene. The village of Hurley, five minutes' walk from the lock, is as old a little spot as there is on the river, dating, as it does, to quote the quaint phraseology of those dim days, "from the times of King Sebert and King Offa." Just past the weir (going up) is Danes' Field, where the invading Danes once encamped, during their march to Gloucestershire; and a little further still, nestling by a sweet corner of the stream, is what is left of Medmenham Abbey.

Jerome K Jerome

With several pints having replaced what the day had taken out, I slept soundly until 5.00 a.m.when the local geese made the most appalling noise. I was awake now so I got up breakfasted and packed up the camp. I couldn't leave until 9.00 o'clock because I needed to retrieve my £10 key deposit from the lock keeper. My nearest neighbours were 6 lads in two camping skiffs. There was no sign of life from them as I quietly loaded the canoe and set off on day two.

Passing alone through Hurley Lock I moved into the next reach with the north bank totally dominated by a very large caravan park. Within half a mile Temple Lock marks the entrance into Marlow Reach.

The lock keeper tells me that I am in luck. The next section of the river has had restrictions due to the water flows from last weeks rains but he has just received instructions to reset the weir and move to "amber boards". The next lock down is taking the same action removing any threat of restrictions for the rest of my trip.

As I move into the next reach the river is again full of rowing teams in training.

Jerome K Jerome speaks most eloquently of this part of the river.

Grand old Bisham Abbey, whose stone walls have rung to the shouts of the Knights Templars, and which, at one time, was the home of Anne of Cleves and at another of Queen Elizabeth, is passed on the right bank just half a mile above Marlow Bridge. Bisham Abbey is rich in melodramatic properties. It contains a tapestry bed-chamber, and a secret room hid high up in the thick walls. The ghost of the Lady Holy, who beat her little boy to death, still walks there at night, trying to wash its ghostly hands clean in a ghostly basin.

Jerome K Jerome

Just before you come to the abbey, and right on the river's bank, is Bisham Church, and, perhaps, if any tombs are worth inspecting, they are the tombs and monuments in Bisham Church. It was while floating in his boat under the Bisham beeches that Shelley, who was then living at Marlow (you can see his house now, in West street), composed The Revolt of Islam.

Jerome K Jerome

Marlow is one of the pleasantest river centres I know of. It is a bustling, lively little town; not very picturesque on the whole, it is true, but there are many quaint nooks and corners to be found in it, nevertheless - standing arches in the shattered bridge of Time, over which our fancy travels back to the days when Marlow Manor owned Saxon Algar for its lord, ere conquering William seized it to give to Queen Matilda, ere it passed to the Earls of Warwick or to worldly-wise Lord Paget, the councillor of four successive sovereigns.

Jerome K Jerome

Marlow is still dominated by it's suspension bridge. In the 1960s the plan was to replace it with a ferro concrete structure and it is only thanks to the efforts of the local preservation society that the bridge was renovated although modern weight restrictions keep it free of all heavy traffic.

Immediately past the bridge is the local slipway (no local parking)...

..and then the approach to Marlow Lock with the long weir on the right.

There is lovely country round about it, too, if, after boating, you are fond of a walk, while the river itself is at its best here. Down to Cookham, past the Quarry Woods and the meadows, is a lovely reach. Dear old Quarry Woods! with your narrow, climbing paths, and little winding glades, how scented to this hour you seem with memories of sunny summer days! How haunted are your shadowy vistas with the ghosts of laughing faces! how from your whispering leaves there softly fall the voices of long ago!

Jerome K Jerome

I chose to use the short backwaters rather than the main channel. The first, at the bye-pass bridge takes you past the Scouts Longridge Watersports Centre and rejoining the main stream, under the shadows of Quarry Woods.

The second backwater by the boatyard takes you past these waterside properties.

They have solved the age old problem of where to keep their boats by giving them the entire ground floor and living upstairs. (How would "her indoors" feel about that? )

You are now approaching Bourne End. If you are looking for somewhere to stop for a pint your choice is the Bounty (right bank before the railway bridge) or a mile further on and The Ferry at Cookham Bridge. I chose The Ferry.

And then into the lock cut to Cookham Lock.

We pulled up in the backwater, just below Cookham, and had tea; and, when we were through the lock, it was evening. A stiffish breeze had sprung up - in our favour, for a wonder; for, as a rule on the river, the wind is always dead against you whatever way you go. It is against you in the morning, when you start for a day's trip, and you pull a long distance, thinking how easy it will be to come back with the sail. Then, after tea, the wind veers round, and you have to pull hard in its teeth all the way home. When you forget to take the sail at all, then the wind is consistently in your favour both ways. But there! this world is only a probation, and man was born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.

Jerome K Jerome

Some things don't change.

So into Cliveden Reach with the large mansion (now a hotel although the grounds are still National Trust and open to the public) that was the scene of the Profumo Scandal that brought down the Tory government in the 1960s.

Clieveden Woods still wore their dainty dress of spring, and rose up, from the water's edge, in one long harmony of blended shades of fairy green. In its unbroken loveliness this is, perhaps, the sweetest stretch of all the river, and lingeringly we slowly drew our little boat away from its deep peace.

Jerome K Jerome

Two miles will bring you to Boulter's Lock. I ended my trip just before the lock where there is a free car park on the right. I had arranged for my wife to pick me up from this car park. I sat and watched the boats through Boulter's Lock for an hour while she waited in another car park half a mile down the road . In other circumstances I might have been frustrated or annoyed but after two days on the river another hour didn't matter.

One of the pleasures of some trips is the ability to imagine that you are the first person ever to have passed that way. One this part of the Thames, in the best traditions of contrasts, the pleasure is in the absolute certainty that the shapers of history have passed this way before you. Princes, politicians, priests, poets, playwrights and purveyors of plentiful products () have all left their mark. They are here still if you just scratch the surface.

[Sparky]

Nice alliteration Keith! [Good blogg too].
Mike

[andym]

fabulous
keeps my spirits up whilst unable to get the boat out

[SunburyAndy]

Well done Keith, I often refer to JKJ, it always amazes me that a book that was written 1887 is still a good source of reference.

I think that’s the right date, I know it was published in the same year my house was built, I like to think that as JKJ rowed past he would have been able to see the builders at work. In those days my house would have been the closest to the river, unfortunately in the 70s a concrete police training college was built on the 100 yards in between

[Dougie]

Fantastic blogg and pictures Keith. That looks like the kind of trip I would really enjoy. Thank's for sharing.
Dougie

[MagiKelly]

Excellent blogg in all ways.

It is strange for me to recognise places in the bloggs from "down south" but we have friends who stayed in Henley for a while and we used to stay over for the festival so I actually know a bit of the river. Although we only went out on a hired power boat for an hour or so.

[Mutineering Maggie]

Brilliant really enjoyed looking at all the views,buildings Rising Sun especially Well Done.Thanks for posting

Maggie

[Innes]

Great Blogg. Loads of good pictures as well.

Innes

[LAS247]

A good informative read, well done

[Howard Mc]

Excellent blogg.
Might I add, to the list of all the powerful, the notorious, the royals, and all the others, a guy who is obviously content and at one with his craft.....'Keith the Canoeist'.
Best regards
Howard Mc

[happybunny]

Well, I was searching for inspiring stuff about Loch Shiel, and your mention of it at the beginning brought up this thread. I started reading out of mild curiosity, and was captivated. 3M in a B is a brilliant book, and your use of the quotes etc from it, combined with your nice prose and excellent photos brought this trip alive.

I still think I'll be taking my long drive north rather than south for my upcoming trip, but next time I'm visiting relatives down your way I'll be thinking of taking the canoe, which wouldn't have occurred to me before.

Thanks for an excellent blogg.

Ben

[aslan]

An informative and enjoyable read as usual Keith. Some of those houses are outstanding. I really must put my mind to a trip down south with paddling in mind.

[KeithD]

I really must put my mind to a trip down south with paddling in mind.

Let me know when you do and I'll try to join you somewhere.