Cookham to Reading.


We set off again at early-o-clock to catch the train from Reading to Cookham. Top tip: there is no where to get a bacon sandwich in Maidenhead or Cookham. I told Mat the lockeeper would make us one, but by the time he realised I was lying, we were in the middle of the river.

We saw this interesting castle type house on the way, wonder who lives there (we didn't wonder really, we were more concerned at the lack of food on board).














The weather wasn't too bad for the first part of our trip and we cruised along feeding moudly bread to the ducks and geese while waiting for our turn at the various locks on the way.














Later on the weather got worse and worse, with torrential rain, so we both got soaked. Mat in the meantime continued with the project of 'returning to nature' some gravel and rocks that had been used as ballast under the front deck. This stuff isn't the best thing to use, as it retains damp very easily. We managed to misplace all of this during the trip, with Iris sitting about 3 inches higher at the fron by the time we got to Reading. I'll be putting in concrete bloack ballast over the holiday weekend.

During one particularlly bad shower, we passed through Henley, center of the known universe. Basically you can get anywhere from Henley, a little known fact.















Eventually, we arrived at Iris's mooring at Reading. Didn't get much time to take in the scenery as we had to go and get Mat's girlfriend and head off to a BBQ in Hertfordshire.....


Here's a final shot of the crew, a little out of focus, some would say thats no bad thing.