Tuesday 18 September.

0830 and at the Isis Lock for the Thames! John is very anxious about going onto the river and had asked me to sit at the back with him.  Unsure as to why.  Anyhow at the first lock I was commanded to go to the front by the lock keeper: he was a little grumpy.  This was so that I could tie the boat up at the front in the lock.  We held up proceedings as we did not have a River Thames Licence.  So he needed to shell out £35 using his credit card.  The Lock keeper's mood did not improve.  Once out of the lock there it was the huge wide River Thames. It felt very strange after spending the last month living in a lock. But hey the sun shone and the huge properties with their lovely boathouses were a joy to view.  Lots of plastic boats on the Thames and they appear to look down on the tradional canal boats.  What a difference in attitude for us.  The speed limit rose to 5 miles per hour although I would say that most of the plastic boats were doing a lot more than that.  We had help through all of the locks apart from one at lunchtiome when the lock keeper was on his break and it was self service.  We both got off and looked at the instructions. Decided that I would man the gate and John would bring the boat through.  We were managing well on the first part and before I had chance to go to the other end to start to open her up Jesus sent me a helper; a man in a plastic boat who obliged. (Did he really - John)  Even more in luck as it started to rain just as I jumped back on board leaving the man to do the lock and J ohn to stear.

We moored up at   ..  forgot the name.  Wallingford. According to our guide it is where Midsummer Murders is filmed. We had a quick trot around the town and did some shopping in Waitrose.  Quick drink on the local to check if they had WIFI and back to the boat. Did not return to use the wifi.