Back to Wallingford :)

10.5 miles and 3 locks

The weather forecast was dry (ish) for today and tomorrow so it seemed liked an opportunity to do some laundry. Harold soldiered on manfully against the flow of the river while the washing machine nicked power from his batteries. This bit of the river is wide and lush and tranquil. There were dragonflies, grebes and sparrowhawks alongside big bits of Tupperware and very posh houses.

The tranquil river

with big riverside properties

There was no mooring in Goring so we went on through the lock.

Waiting at Goring lock

Entering Goring lock

The water comes into Goring lock

At the next lock we planned to top up with water but there were queues and nowhere to moor and it all got a bit complicated so we just went on. There's not many water points on this part of the river but we have faith in our big (and now very clean) tank.
We twice saw a helicopter carrying something dangling beneath it. It looked like a dangerous exercise!

We got to Wallingford about 2pm and had everything crossed we could get a mooring spot. Initially it looked bad with no spaces in sight. Then we spotted a hire boat and headed over to it in the hope that they wouldn't  mind us breasting up alongside. They were fine about it, although the boat was longer than Harold so the ends didn't line up. We had fun getting Scoobs off - literally carrying him across in harness and muzzle!

Alongside the hire boat.

The hire boat skipper was a chap in sunglasses who would like to have his own boat but is gradually losing his sight, so hires instead while he can. After a short time they wanted to move on so we let the boat out. Just as we were securing Harold in their place by the bank, another narrow boat came past in search of a berth and we called them up alongside. They really wanted a berth as they have a bus trip to Didcot railway museum booked from here for tomorrow! With much barking from Scoobs they got secured and we settled in for a pleasant afternoon in this nice little town. 

Finally settled with our companion.