On to the Thames

20/7/2018


From London, a dear friend, AB, aboard, we travelled west to join the main line of the Grand Union,  then SE to Brentford, where one waits for an incoming high tide to provide enough water depth to leave the tidal lock. Annie the lock keeper marshalls craft into the lock, crew rope their boats to the sides, Annie operates the automated lock, and each craft heads to the Thames, turn right, go like the clappers upstream the 5 miles to the first lock, at Teddington. Through that and you're free of the tide.

The Thames  is a  highway, classified as such by law we were told.  It speaks history. Bounded with towns, fields, stately homes, houseboats, boat houses, Runnymede, Kew, Hampton Court. We moored outside the Court,  the gold painted gates glinting in the waning sun. The next day a delight, no small fry to herd (bless 'em) - the chimneys a favourite, all different. The king's velvet covered thunderbox. The art, tapestries,  gardens.

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