Tuesday (23rd) St George's Day ...
dawn just before 6 am from our meadow mooring at Cookham
You wouldn't believe that there was not a mooring space to be had over the Easter weekend and now there's Still Rockin' all on her lonesome as I return from dropping the rubbish off at the boater's bins before we cast off.
By 10 we're at Cookham Lock which is manned and ready for us today ...
and we're soon approaching the boat house on Cliveden Reach ...
where we can see movement inside ... we'll need to investigate!
Looking back at the Cliveden House appearing over the trees ...
and there's our favourite, perfect mooring ...
with our favourite, perfect view of Cliveden House ...
but there's a story here ... later ...
Once securely moored we set off for a walk up the hill, it's going to be another warm day ...
We're soon at the recently restored Victorian boathouse ...
click this link ... our Cliveden walk in September last year
The restoration of the Liddesdale Canoe is going to take two years and we're looking forward to seeing it out and about on the River Thames.
Starting the steep ten-minute climb ...
and we're there
I love this year's colour scheme ... it's much better than last year in my opinion
and the grass has recovered somewhat too
Still Rockin' is moored just to the right of the statue at the end of the parterres ...
just there!
The Cockeral Pavilion ...
and below Stairs!
We lunched in the Orangery and continued out walk ...
On our way down the hill ...
and the reason for walking up here today ...
to see the bluebells
Cliveden usually hosts a sculpture exhibition each year but again I don't think 2019's is as good as last year's on 27th September, which I could at least relate to.
Perhaps it's the light, or perhaps it's because we're here a week earlier than we were in 2018 but the bluebells don't look as good as last year's bluebells either!
Creating a new space perhaps?
We stopped for a moment by the visitors lounge in the woods and watched this robin ... there were two water bowls but only one with water in it. He landed on the one with water but didn't drink and then came to the empty one, dropped inside and looked rather surprised to find it empty!
Still coming down the hill looking over the Thames we could see what appears to be two lakes that we've not seen before ...
Google Maps show a tributary of the the river which must at times flood the meadow there. Click on any of the picture to enlarge.
Back at Still Rockin' we sit on the deck reading when a National Trust volunteer came along ...
From Easter the NT are starting collecting mooring fees once again and will patrol the riverside at various time during the day ... and guess what ... if you're a member there's a discount of 50%! (I wonder if Runnymede will now start to offer a discount too). We don't mind paying mooring fees, we expect to do so on the Thames so we paid the £5 for the one night as we'll be off early in the morning.
Chatting to the warden he explained that he should really ask us to move to the mooring in front of us as apparently we shouldn't moor where we always do because there are no mooring posts for us to tie onto but as we were moving on in the morning he would let us off this time. I explained that we moor there because the view is fantastic ... and he explained that that was the reason there were no mooring posts ... there's a seat just there for visitors to sit on and enjoy that perfect view and when we're moored there ... other visitors can't see it!
He further explained that tying to the tree will eventually damage the tree and putting stakes in the ground will eventually cause damage to the river bank.
We were gutted but there are two other long mooring bays along the river here that Still Rockin' will fit into with mooring posts but obviously without the view ... we'll have to go and sit on the seat to get that in future!
One thing that we were pleased to hear is that the mooring wardens will use a small boat to collect fees from boats moored on the little islands which also belong to the National Trust (and often moor for extended periods) creating more space for others during busy times.
