On to the Thames

It’s raining!!! Oh well on with the waterproofs and off we went. We had a lovely cruise to Reading but were a bit worried when we reached County lock (see piccy) wow I wasn’t sure if it would fall apart when I tried to open it. We managed to get through ok and pressed the traffic light button to make sure it was clear to go through the town centre. All good.( Still raining). On to Blakes lock, the last one before the Thames, and great ! all broken and tape holding it together!!! Managed to open one gate and we carefully got in and back out of the lock. Then onto the mighty Thames!! It was still raining but beautiful. Just cruising past the BIG houses and gardens was great even in the rain. The locks were ok until we reached Shiplake.☹️ no power!! so you have to turn a very heavy big wheel to open the paddles and then keep turning to open the gates, phew exhausting, luckily a few of us there to help. We were in the lock with a very posh cabin cruiser who just averted a disaster!!😳 he tied his boat up to the side, came to help with the wheel turning and didn’t notice his boat was tied too tight!! just managed to jump back on board and cut the rope before it turned over sideways!!! Anyway it stopped raining as we moored up in Henley on Thames. Really lovely here so we wil stay a few days..