Going through Goring.

The morning was cloudy free so it was a pleasure to walk into town to get the Sunday paper.

The morning light was lovely on St Peter's Church and the boat house pub and old warehouse.

As we pulled away from the berth we saw a lady collecting mooring fees on the west bank so we had missed it, shame. They should give her a cut of the take to make sure she gets round everybody if they don't want to miss out. The bridge actually has 19 arches and is 250m long. It shows how much flooding there was in the past.

On the outskirts of Wallingford was this beautiful summerhouse. I could live there.

Above Moulsford the Great Western Railway cross the Thames on a bridge built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1893. It was brick built with Bath stone quoins and with four skewed arches. In 1892 the route was widened to four tracks so another bridge was built. It mirrored the original but the stone was missed out. The new bridge is actually not as wide as the original as the new track was built to the standard gauge track, where as the first bridge was built to the GWR wider gauge. You can see the two bridges side by side above.

The views to the hills makes this stretch particularly scenic.

Yesterdays trip was the day of the Red Kite. There were so many around, even swooping into gardens in Wallingford. It seems that the powers that be have asked people to stop feeding them. RAF Benson have had a couple of helicopters suffer bird strikes with them and are thinking of culling them in the area. You hear of them taking dogs etc but it seems that they do take live prey when there is not enough carrion available. So far the largest mammal seen to be take is a squirrel, baby rabbits and rats. They have also plovers fledglings. Today's trip featured Great Crested Grebes. The most common sighting are the males with their lovely plumeage. The feathers were used in hats and the birds suffered. Today we did see a few females and only one young one though. We were lucky as there was nobody on the water point at Cleeve lock so we stopped to top up.

As we approached Goring in the sun Helen was reading the Sunday paper and was looking at the food section. Lo and behold there was a review of the restaurant above, 'Leonard's at the Leaden Bottel or something. Good view but out of my price range I suspect. It is an Italian restaurant.

Goring Lock is in a picturesque setting and there were a few onlookers to wave to. There is a long line of moorings below the lock.

The Harstock Woods opposite Beale Park give the scene a touch of majesty. The different greens would keep Dulux busy for months. There were surprisingly few boats moored up at the meadow moorings here.

We passed through Whitchurch Lock and looked for a place on the parish moorings on the meadow. Helen spotted on and we just fitted in. There were even posts to moor to. Result. After lunch we went for a walk to post a letter and have a look around. Despite some impressive houses above the lock the middle of Pangbourne was not that impressive. We therefore walked over the toll bridge to Whitchurch on the opposite side of the river. Above is the list of tolls in 1797. Today it is free for pedestrians and cars are 60p. It was closed for much of 2013/14 whilst it was renovated,but there was a temporary pedestrian bridge.

Before the bridge there was a ferry. The first bridge was erected in 1792. This was replaced by another in 1852 and again by the present bridge in 1902.

When we got back to the boat the chairs were out and the papers were perused in the sunshine with regular cups of tea for a perfect Sunday.