And so to Henley

We have arrived at a very damp, cool and overcast Henley, after a lovely afternoon with Adam and Emilija.

We met them at Reading station and since it wasn't raining,  as forecast,  we decided to travel downstream towards Henley where they could pick up a train back to Hounslow. Adam thoroughly enjoyed having a go at helming,   in fact he wants a narrowboat now!!

We had travelled to Reading from Pangbourne on Sunday morning having spent nights at our usual stops of Abingdon and Wallingford. The river is fairly quiet, it being the end if the season now but we have encountered lots of hire boats especially Le Boat hire boats. So many of these are driven as though they are BMWs on the water!  We have seen then driven straight into the bank and one even ended up crosswise in a lock right behind us! Sid was a little worried as was the lock keeper as it nearly mounted the lock side. 

As we left Wallingford on Saturday morning we found ourselves in the middle of the start of a regatta. There  were hundreds of rowers all making their way to the start, which for those of you who know this stretch of the Thames, was near Sheridan Marine, which is not far from Goring!  At this point all the rowers were congregated on either side of the river. We had to laugh when one of the Marshall drew near us and advised us the keep to the centre of the channel at this point and to take care because some of the rowers are muppets!  Doesn't exactly fill you with confidence particularly if one of the Le Boat boats comes across them! We would love to know what sort of race this was. We had only come across regattas when boats race against each other before.  Presumably some sort of timed race! !??  Quite a sight!