So, What is this Magna Carta Thing?

Woke up, always a good thing that!! Cooked up a sausage butty, mmmm.... and it started to rain. We had to get to the Wey today so off we went, through a completely different Windsor to yesterday, no people and no boats. Noticed the royal standard flying at the castle!! Romney was on self serve, a bunch of lads on a Kris Cruisers rental were setting it, so we hung about and followed them in. Lockie arrived bang on 9 as we were going down. It was very windy and the rain went from light drizzle to quite hard at times, still I was able to give the new jacket a test run, seemed to do just fine.

Out of Romney, on the right (or star something for those with a nautical bent) there is home park crown estate where the Royal Windsor horse show was being dismantled, I think that explains the flying of the standard at the castle, queenie was obviously giving the show a once over from the window!!

I guess this is what Windsor is all about:

You pass the crown estate land for what seems like miles!! It would make some of the best mooring on the river, even for a fee!! But every few yards is the 'bugger off you boating bastards' sign, interspaced with some bullshit about security, pull the other one queenie, you just don't want the view spoiled!!

The weather remained the same for the whole morning, that cycle of nearly stopping then me having to fight with the umbrella as the wind drives the rain right into our faces.

Then we pass Runnymede and I get to thinking about the Magna Carta, I'd have taken a photo but with one hand on the tiller and the other on the umbrella it wasn't going to happen. Here we are on our way to a rally to celebrate 800 years of the signing of said document, passing the place of it's signing, and I note that there seems to be a gap in my education, I blame the schooling system for this!!

Penny helps me out by explaining that's it's some agreement that the King signed to stop him from running amok and acting all dictator like, sounds like I need to google. Apparently it also has something to do with the basis of the American declaration of independance, more for google methinks!! Anyway, Bell Weir lock, the one just past Runnymede has this on the wall, and the grumpiest lockie on the river award!!

Soon enough we get to Shepperton and turn right to the river Wey, just in time for Thames lock to be closed for lunch, so we tie up and have lunch ourselves. Lockie arrives at 2, locks a boat down, locks us up, relieves us of £14 for a 2 way transit to Woodham Junction and the Basingstoke canal, we admire again some of the houses we went to look at a couple of years back and head up the Wey, now working locks for ourselves again.

Us in Thames Lock:

We get to New Haw lock and decide to call it a day at the top. After dinner we go for a walk along to the Basingstoke Canal and locks 1 and 2, I've never been here before. At lock 2 we take a walk into New Haw, an uninspiring place, but find a Coop to get a couple of bits, and complete a circular walk back to the lock and the boat.

Oh, and a phone call earlier meant we could have gone to Lechlade after all, I didn't get the contract!! Never mind I'm on holiday.

Today:    15.5 miles -   11 locks -     8 hours
So Far: 113.5 miles -   45 locks -    53 hours