A trip down the Thames: Cookham to the Fat Duck at Bray

Eventually Skipper Derek and I left The Bounty at Bourne End.

Boulters Lock: Playground for the boaters

We continued to Cookham this was the point where the Roman army crossed The Thames, a campaign to regain the Roman city of Silchester in Hampshire. 

After Cookham Lock huge trees rise up on both sides of the river; steep banks of foliage that enclose the Thames at Cliveden Reach. We look high up on the Buckinghamshire bank to posh Cliveden House. It appears to hang in the air above the trees.

Only a little further and we are in Boulters Lock moments from Maidenhead Bridge. Boulters Lock was popular for boating parties in the late 19th and early 20th century. It was the place to visit on the Sunday after Royal Ascot. The wealthy and famous passed through the lock, often on their way to Cliveden.

Passing under Maidenhead Bridge and shortly after under a red brick wonder. A bridge designed by Kingdom Brunel to carry trains from the West into London. We were close Bray and our turning point. Past the houses of the rich and famous and the renown painter Rolf Harris we made our turn back upstream.

A lovely, lovely day.

Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.

Prothalamion BY EDMUND SPENSER    http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174484