Our new friends

Last few miles

Giving ourselves the luxury of a lunch break at Triggs Lock just north of Guildford

lovely send off fron Neil's folks and their friends. Great breakfast and the best lunch of the trip - thank you Monica, Peter, Geoff and Ida. also really nice to see Mel and Alistair along the way ( no pun intended). They came out to find us which meant a lot and i look forward to seeing the photos.

the Wey is proving to be an ideal place to finish the trip - not too challenging, very scenic but still demanding enough in it's own way.

can't get too comforftable though as there's 9 miles to go. Soon be time for clean and dry clothes :-)

Leaving Addlestone

Last day

I cant quit believe it's the lasy day. I've got into quite a habit of gettig the day started which includes packing all my belongings into small dry bags wshich are swallowed by the boats.

neil's parents and their friends are very kindly coming to see us off and bringing breakfast. we have 17 miles to do by 4pm and we cant be late for our welcoming committee. The Wey will seem strange after the Thames - smaller, more friendly, less organised.

see some of you later and a big thank you to everyone who has sponsored us. It will make a big difference to peoples lives.

End of day 6

We arrived in addlestone at 6ish (early) and Neil found a sneaky backwater to deposit us in the pub garden. 120 miles done.

today saw us finish off the Thames and transition to the Wey Navigation. We had the luxury of riding through the last two locks on the Thames. So much easier than landing and carrying.

managing locks is always tricky but some are worse than others. The first one on the Wey was the worst yet. The process involved standing up in the kayak (never easy), making sure it doesnt slip out from benith you (as happend to me when i went for a dunk earlier im the week), climbing 4ft onto a wet and slippery metal walkway that was only 18 in wide. Finally, after carrying the boats along the walkway to safety we were told by the lock keeper that they usually recommend another landing place for kayaks!

Final day tomorrow. I'll be sorry to see it over but i am looking forward to being in dry clothes.

off to find food now.

Coming in to Dorney

Our two intrepid explorers arriving in Dorney (near Eton) last night.
Posted by Nicky

Back up and running

Hello from Dorney, close to Eton. 100 miles done, with a new phone but the same old end of day aches and pains.

We thought today was going to be an easier day - more fool us. We packed our smelly belongings and left Wargrave.

The Thames has been both a pleasant surprise and a hard task mistress. The surprise has been the number of deserted and lovely stretches. The task has been coping with what we now refer to as 'sticky water'. An example - we passed through Henley, paddling the measured and marked course. However it seems they replace the water with treacle. Some streches of water take so much extra effort to pass it seems like we are paddling through treacle. Neil is going to put his considerable engineering talents to work at solving this puzzle when we get home.

thanks to Nicky for bringing dinner (and a phone) tonight as we are in self catering. There's lots more to say but it will have to wait until we get home as it's late.

posted from my mobile.