First of all, our three 'kids', who have put up with (and even encouraged) their crazy parents in this wonderfully hare-brained scheme of exploring the British rivers and canals! Adam and Shireen came with us on our first little 'trial run' in the boat, we met up with Jeremy near Leamington Spa, and they have each joined us for a few days from time to time: Adam on the River Wey near Guildford, Jeremy down the River Nene from Northampton and Shireen as we chugged through London (and a couple of days on the Nene). Here they are helping us to celebrate our 35th anniversary in July, at the White Bear in Rickmansworth.
David and Mary, our friends from Okehampton, were the first (non-family) to join us as guests / crew when we went up the Llangollen Canal in April. They (and Whisk the dog) quickly adapted to canal boating. We won't say anything about the 'falling in' score, except to say that Whisk won!
Our next on-board visitors were Calvin and Miriam from Pennymoor. Partly responsible for re-starting us into boating in 2004, these two are 'old hands', taking their trailable boat to 'detached' waterways that Zindagi will never reach, like the 'Mon and Brec' in Wales. Travelling with them down the southern section of the Oxford Canal in May was good fun, though they found out the hard way that the towpath is not often good enough for cycling!
In the month or so that we spent on the Thames, we only had a couple of visitors. Jenny came with us for a few days upstream from Marlow and then down to Maidenhead, where this picture was taken with Val and Jenny's sister.
Then, while were waiting to go up the River Wey, Neil and Jenny joined us for an afternoon 'spin' down the Thames from Shepperton to Taggs Island and back.
Once on the Wey, we had Adam with us for a few days and a little rush of visitors at the same time!
First Mike and Kerstin joined us at Guildford and brought Divakaran with them, an old friend from India. Somehow Mike avoided being photographed!
Then Terry (Val's brother) and Di also joined us for a meal in Guildford. Not enough time for any travelling afloat, but we did have time for a 'cuppa' on board together!
Brian (Di's brother) and Diane cycled along the towpath to meet us at the top of Deepcut locks on the Basingstoke Canal, and we enjoyed a couple of days with them, shopping and eating out . . .
More family visits as Shireen (complete with 'bump') joined us in London on our way out to the River Lee and Stort, and Peter (Dave's brother) and Joy came with us from Sheering Mill Lock to Bishop's Stortford and back – a good day's distraction from their busy lives!
Then, on the Lee, we met up with Jenny again, and Polly, another of Val's college friends who lives in Hertford.
Alan and Barbara were the only ones of our Romford friends who could make it over to the Lee while we were there. As a former Chief Engineer, Alan has been used to much larger vessels!
Back west of London, before we headed north on the Grand Union, just time to fit in a day with Paul (Val's nephew) and Caroline, Billy and Tom.
Just 'up the line', we met up with our Indian friends, Sam and Sumana, who were staying with Jeanette in 
Rickmansworth. Jeanette joined us for a few days' relaxing (?) boating after they left.
Rickmansworth. Jeanette joined us for a few days' relaxing (?) boating after they left.
Jonny and Sue came with us for a week's trip from Norton Junction up to Leicester and back. In this picture, is Sue checking to see whether Jonny is steering straight? Various visits from Adam, Jeremy and Shireen as we travelled through London in November, but we didn't take any photos. Our new grandson hadn't visited the boat yet, but he made his appearance before too long!
We had a very welcome visit from David and Gwenda at the end of November, when they nipped over from Romford to see us on the River Lee at Dobb's Weir. Again, we didn't take a photo then, but here's one of them on board our 'share' boat back in March 2005.
Our onboard family get-together in Berkhamsted on 27th December didn't feature turkey or Christmas pudding, but we did all enjoy a Chinese takeaway!
. . . and of course the star appearance of 2007 was our grandson Thor, who arrived on 12th November and has already visited us on board a couple of times – with Shireen, of course!
We expect to add to this page as we meet up with more friends in our travels. We look forward to seeing all these faces again, and some more fresh ones – yours, perhaps?
And, just in case you've forgotten what we look like, here's a picture of us that Shireen took back in July 2007.
2 comments:
Gosh you have probably had more visits than when at home. Just caught up with your posts. You have excelled yourself recently. I like your new photo - you both look younger on it.
Thanks, Barbara. Just been doing a bit of catching up! As for the apparent youthfulness – just put it down to sunshine, longer hair and Shireen's skill with the camera! (We didn't have a photo on the blog before!)
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