Wallingford - Rant Day!

Hello reader. Before I go off on a rant, I thought I would share these photos with you of Goring/Streathley taken on an evening walk. After finding a mooring at Goring and returning Pat and Chris to the train station we strolled around the village of Goring. Found a fabulous hardware store that sold just about everything, and alas spent a pretty penny! In the evening we went for another stroll as it was still so hot inside the boat. We walked across the bridges that separate Goring from Streatley and looking back from the Streathley side the bridges that cross the Thames made the road look like it had buckled and melted in the heat, just like us!

Goring Lock

Has the heat melted the road!

The tower of St Thomas of Canterbury Church, Goring

The church in Goring has an unusual tower in as much as there is a smaller round tower attached to the main square one. We thought it looked quite interesting. However when we ventured inside the church, we were disappointed to see that it had been modernised, with modern pine benches and a newly tiled marble floor that would have looked good in any kitchen, but not a church. No character (except the rood screen) remained. The one unusual thing was that both entrance doors had been backed with what looked like leather, so no wood was visible, soundproofing?????

The Gardener!

Anyway back to this morning and the rant! Why is it these plastic noddy boats take up all the mooring big enough for us narrowboats, when there is smaller mooring spaces available to them! In question today was a plastic noddy moored at Wallingford in a space long enough for a narrowboat but sitting slap bang in the middle hogging all the space. I politely asked him if he could move forward so we could get Josephine in the gap behind him and another noddy. Only to be told by plastic noddy owner that  'another boat was coming'. Andy attempted to moor between these two boats, but we know it was too small a gap by about 6 feet, but you should have seen their faces as we tried to crush their boats! Don't they know we are 18 tons.
Anyway we gave up (should have persevered but it was too hot to argue) and found a mooring about half a mile further on along a rough edge under some trees. At last some shade! We have termed this adventure mooring! (Grandson Jack has adventure wees, out in the open, so we have termed the phrase from him) You just don't know if you are going to run aground or hit something hidden, but this time ok. with just about enough water under us.
Off into Wallingford this afternoon for a mooch.