Hampton Court

Leaving Eton we passed what looked like a whole bunch of brilliant free moorings only to read one of many signs stating the land was Crown Estate and there was strictly no mooring, for the most part we’d still clock it as stopable but a huge guy in a Range Rover looping the boundary looked like he meant business.

South of Windsor there seems to be a shift from eye-popping ornate bricks and mortar to intricate floating homes. Passing under the M25 and then the M3 we motored on towards Shepperton Lock. The junction with the River Wey was busy with rowers and boats. A quick stop at Shepperton Marina was an eye opener, pontoon after pontoon after pontoon of pristine cruisers bobbing about, the chandlery is stocked with just about every boat thing imaginable too.

Narrowboats slipped away as we headed on through Kingston Lock, in fact we were mainly surrounded by boats heading out for evening drinks or the theatre. A couple of perfect moorings were still available outside Hampton Court, we thought about squeezing in between two shining cruisers but having considered their immaculate canopies and the fact we’d be lighting the fire, opted for a mooring tucked out the way where sparks wouldn’t matter. With temperatures still brilliantly high for this time of year, it’s hard to imagine Henry VIII rode to London on the frozen Thames on one of the 20 occasions it’s frozen over since Roman times.