Cliveden

This morning we still had yellow boards "Stream Increasing".  Bit of a puzzle really as there has been little rain really since Sunday and Monday and the flows don't look any different.   So we continued downstream anyway, on low revs to make the most of the current.  Hurley is a good stop for water and rubbish disposal, so while I was doing that Pat nipped over the bridge to the village shope for a few small items.  Apart from Hambledon which we passed before 9:00, all the locks were staffed.  Our aim was to find a mooring in the woods at Cliveden reach, which we did.  There are just a few special placees where it is possible to moor a narrowboat although even then it was bow into the bank and stern in the bushes such that the only way off the back of the boat was over the roof.   After lunch we took the opportunity of walking up to the house.  Apart from the obvious path alonside the river, there are many paths worthy of exploration, but we were disappointed to find that the main path up to the house had a sign saying "NO DOGS".  Typical National Trust, I wonder?   We have been stopped visiting before by such a sign and I must find out what the policy is.   We found a much more interesting path up to the top with no such sign, passing the turtle fountain and emerging by the war memorial.  The gardens, looking a bit ragged when I last visited, have been beautifully renovated.   One other item of not was a grass snake which crossed the wood path just in front of us.    Hopefully not an adder as Alfie nearly trod on it.    Returning to the boat we had a small list to port, a sign of being aground and falling levels, so we decided to leave straight away rather than find the boat beached in the morning.   The lock-keeper at Boulters Lock confirmed that the stream was now classified as "decreasing" and levels were indeed falling.   Our next mooring opportunity for the night is Maidenhead, where we were twice before.  Thus there we now find ourselves.