Cookham to Windsor, 10 Miles, 6th July 2025

Cookham to Windsor Thames Trip 6^th Jul 2025

Heaviest Mist On Record?

It doesn’t rain on Dave’s trips, as we have all heard many times, but this trip saw the heaviest Mist on record with parts of it thumping into the river and splashing the water. (see picture)

Four on the trip Dave and Chris in kayaks, Brendan on Paddleboard, and Tony with an inflatable canoe.  Not just any inflatable canoe because if Heineken built inflatable canoes this would be one. Inflated in three robust sections and then built with a seat and some supports, it looked quite substantial although remained very light.

We arrived nice and early, before 0900, at the Ferry pub, Cookham, and looked set for an early start until delays, when first the shuttle convoy got separated and then the Windsor car park machines played up!

Suitably briefed by Dave, we finally got on the water at 1030 to do one of the longest parts of the Thames sections on the source to Teddington challenge.  The weather reports were mixed and indeed the sky was non-committal about what it was going to throw at us being all shades from white to black.  Normal beautiful scenery and posh houses on this section along with lots of young water fowl.  A seagull that was flying around with a very young bleating Coot in its mouth, was being chased by the parent. It dropped its prey and then tried to recapture it. But two DP-ers and the adult Coot guided the young’un to some bushes.

There were four locks to negotiate, two of which were enormous. We had to portage one, but Brendan had to portage all as he is on a board. Although the general rule is no inflatables, Tony’s was waved through without problems.

Having been forced to put on waterproofs for the first bout of heavy fog, the sun came out and tried to roast us!  More mixed weather continued and we took refuge on the last lock for the second bout of heavy fog! The sky was black and the friendly lady lock keeper who suggested we let it go past, later told us that the lock had been struck by lightning many times; perhaps she needed some fellow targets!

We only saw five other lightweight craft like ourselves. However, there were numerous motorised craft many of which looked like sea-going cruising craft. Also several were river boat passenger craft that have been dug out for the summer.

We finished this long haul at 1615 at the slipway in Windsor.  For Tony it was his first DP Thames trip (although he has done parts on his own before). For Brendan it was his second and for me my penultimate section with only the last, and longest, to do.

A nice day out in good company and enjoyable despite the weather.

CRH