We cruised the length of the navigation to Godalmining, a very quaint town, where we moored for a couple of nights before returning to Guildford. Also an interesting town to explore. One of the women from the horse drawn boat trip at Godalming recognised the origin of the name Jeanie Deans from the Little Grey Men. One of only a small handful of people to recognise the reference.
Horse drawn boat trip at Godalming
Guildford had lovely moorings, but the members of the rowing club start early and it was not unusual to be woken by the sound of rowers and canoeists, early in the morning. I was amazed by the number of people out on the water in small boats for the whole time we were at that end of the navigation.
Heading from Guildford back towards Thames Lock there is some really beautiful countryside. We have found some lovely walks for the dogs, but strangely, to us, most of the public footpaths are enclosed within fences and really well populated. We are used to much more open fields, where the dogs can have a good run, and far fewer people.
Newark Abbey, which is on an island in the river |
The locks on this navigation are 13 foot wide, so slightly narrower than double locks on the canal system. |
Boats need to be secured at both ends in these locks |
There are a couple of very low bridges. Needed to take chimney and exhaust down to pass under! |
One mooring was a bit problematic as it turned out to be in the middle of a cow field. The cows were not there when we stopped but appeared later on. They were not problematic to us, but the dogs were a bit freaked out. Plus they then had a great time eating cow poo.
This was the view directly outside our boat at one mooring
We are currently moored up near Walsham flood lock, a very attractive mooring, that in my opinion is the best mooring on this navigation.
Mooring near Walshsam flood lock
This evening we were sitting out on the towpath having a glass of wine/ pint of beer and this deer appeared only metres from us. Fortunately the dogs did not spot it and it was happily grazing for some time before getting spooked and running off. Not sure what type of deer it is though.
The dogs as ever are having a brilliant time!
We are now heading back to the River Thames and then onwards to Little Venice at the junction the Paddington Arm with the Regent's canal.