[Sound of engine running]
Good morning.
Morning.
We say morning, it might be i don't know, 5 to 3
5 to 3?
where you are, in the afternoon, I don't know [Laughs]
We've just left our mooring just outside Henley
and it's pretty early it's about half past seven in the morning here
Early for us.
and we're on our way to Cookham today.
We've been told this stretch between Henley and Cookham
and then on to Windsor
is really nice, so we have big expectations.
Yes.
We desperately need water, when we turn the tap on
it just goes
Pfffffffff!
We ought to have got some like flour or talcum powder.
Yeah we should've done, yeah
Pffff! [Laughs]
Three locks, we're going through a very posh town called Marlow
and hopefully fingers crossed,
we can get some washing done, get some water, get rid of our rubbish
and have a shower [Laughs]
have a shower [Laughs]
Is it you?
I don't know, it could be.
I didn't know whether you'd trumped or what.
Ohh!
and hopefully fingers crossed by, well late morning if we're lucky,
About midday.
we'll get a very nice mooring in Cookham.
[Music playing]
I've been practicing trying to say the name of this place all night, I've had nightmares about it.
Medmenham
See, you've said it straight away.
Medmenham, Medmenham
So [Laughs]
Behind us is Medmen Arrgghh!
Medmen, Mednem, Medmenham.
Medmenham Abbey
[Laughs]
It's been there for about a thousand years
and it was occupied by monks until the disillusion of the monasteries back in the 1600's
and then it laid empty for about a hundred years or so
and then the Hellfire club took over it.
Hellfire, are they bikers?
Well that's what I thought,
but I thought you can't have like bearded bikers
in the 1700's can you?
No.
unless they were on Penny Farthing motorbikes,
do you think they had them kind of,
in fact I don't even think that had been invented by then, had it?
I don't know, I don't think so.
So anyway the Hellfire club took over it
and because it's out in the middle of nowhere
it was used as like a den of debauchery and drunkenness.
My sort of place.
Ive been reading in my book
and the sort of stuff that went on in that abbey
makes my secret cupboard look like pfffff!
[Laughs] really?
Honestly yeah, it looks like something out of Kays Catalogue.
Your secret cupboard is something out of Kay Catalogue.
No it's not anymore.
[Laughing]
and they owned it for for ages until,
Well we don't know whether they were kicked out or they just got bored and moved on
and then it was empty for a while and it's worth about 10 million quid now.
[Music playing]
The big white castle, it looks like a castle doesn't it?
It does yeah.
on the top of the hill is Danesfield House,
it's been a hotel for about 30 years,
Oh I'd love, I'd love a night in a hotel
wouldn't you?
Yeah.
a massage and a soak in a bath.
Yeah.
Room service.
Yeah.
Chips and mayonnaise.
Oooooh!
Oh I want to do that now.
Yeah.
I wonder if we can take Otis with us.
Yeah, we'll find a dog friendly one.
Years ago during the second world war it was requisitioned by the RAF
and they used to use it for analysing photos that they were taking over France,
I don't know what they were photographing,
like ooh la la stuff.
Ooh la la stuff?
Ooh la la, ooh la la.
Apparently it was aerial photographs of rocket sites that the Germans were setting up in France
and they used to bring the photos back here and they'd analyse them.
[Music playing]
That was Temple Lock and before that it was Hurley Lock.
hurley hurley hurley.
Some words just, ding me.
The thing we've noticed
on the Thames
is that,
well it's different staff,
on the canals it's Canal and River Trust staff
and some are volunteers and some are paid staff.
and on the River Thames, it's Environment Agency staff
and
there tends to be a a difference in attitude doesn't there,
I think between Environment Agency staff and CRT staff.
Don't get me wrong some of the, err sorry i'm just watching a rower
that's aiming right for our boat.
[Horn sounding]
There we go.
Some of the Environment Agency staff on the locks have been really nice,
Yeah, really nice.
But there does tend to be a larger percentage of,
of ones who really might benefit from a customer service course,
[Laughs]
let's put it that way.
Let's put it that way.
No hello, no goodbye,
literally barking orders at you
before you're even settled in the lock.
So again, it's just like this friendliness thing of the River Thames,
it is a beautiful river,
and washers on its final spin.
[Laughs]
but yeah, come on give us a smile.
[Music playing]
Somebody's tired.
There's no don't point in me doing a piece of camera about Bisham Abbey
while you're holding Otis is there, nobody's going to be listening they're all going to be going AWWWW!
Bisham Abbey
on our starboard side
it's the National Sports Centre it's a hub
for sports development now.
Back in the day when it was built,
Henry VIII gave it to his ex-wife Ann of Cleves, it was a consolation prize,
it was like, right I've divorced you, this is your consolation prize.
That's not a bad consolation prize is it?
A future sports centre of excellence,
I bet she didn't know that the time did she
[Laughs]
when she was hanging her nets up.
Her nets?
and putting doilies on tables.
[Music playing]
What a suspension bridge, you come around the corner in to Marlow
and it just opens out in front of you
with the church on our port side.
Marlow bridge, it's a suspension bridge built
back in 1832 by William Tierney Clark.
[Shaun] That's a posh name.
and it was like a practice bridge for him because,
I mean he made a fantastic job of that
and it kind of gave him a reference for another project and he ended up building
a bridge like that one over the River Danube
Linking
Buda
with Pest.
Budapest.
[Music playing]
Now that's how you keep a lock.
[Laughs]
Very efficient.
Room for one more.
The boat behind us, it was like a Dutch Barge wasn't it?
He was making plans trying to get a 60 foot
wide beam badge and a 57-foot narrowboat
into a 20-foot lock
and he was determined to do it but in the end,
we went and terrorised the three cruisers.
Yeah.
They hate it, they hate it.
They were holidaymakers and they hated it.
The plastic boats hate it when a big
16, 18 ton steel narrowboat is coming in behind them
and they're all hanging onto the ropes for dear life aren't they?
It's true, yeah.
Please don't crack us
[Music playing]
Hello
hello
Otis, you've got to pay attention.
[Laughs]
We're here, we've moored
at Cookham Reach, which is just on the corner before the lock.
It's really nice isn't it?
It's beautiful here.
Loads of space
for Otis to practice his walking on the lead, he's getting really good at it.
He is.
and his bladder control is better than Shaun's already
[Laughing]
Which is a bonus [Laughing]
[Laughing]
Just back there is Cock Marsh
and that's where that lovely railway bridge is
and then across the railway bridge is Bourne End.
Now just imagine if they'd have,
yeah, lets leave that one there.
Shhhhh!
It is really nice here.
He want to get down.
It is private land so we have to pay 8 quid a night in mooring fees, 8 quid a day.
Bless him.
So the plan is, as soon as we've recorded this, is we're off again.
[Laughing]
We're two Yorkshiremen, what do you expect, we don't like paying that much for stuff.
I mean, the houses are just awesome. I mean for two blokes from Barnsley, near Barnsley
these are like palaces.
and we've got to get to Windsor yet where there is a like a castle, an actual castle.
An actual palace.
Yeah.
So we're having fun
Otis is doing really well.
Otis is brilliant
We're loving this week more than we did in the last couple of weeks,
Yeah
We hope you've enjoyed your time with us too. If you have
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Aww he's playing with flowers
Playing with flowers
Take care of yourselves, we'll see you next week, bye
TYa-ra.
['Our Narrowboat Quest' Theme Music playing]
Good morning and welcome to our vlog,
you join us on a
Mmmmm day
Shouldn't you be de-mooring, Pat?
I don't know, where are we honey?
Errrm,
I don't know, but it's not too shabby.
Join us soon, I'll be moor and and yeah, are we going.
We'll talk later
Alright, we'll talk later, bye, thank you.
bye see you bye.
[Transition music]
I just had the weirdest dream.
Really?
Good morning and welcome to puppy training day one.
We, I don't know where we are or where we going or what.
I don't hear anything around the muff do you?
It's what you do with your meatballs,
you cook em.
In the eas afternoon
In the eas afternoon?
[Laughing]
Marlow today yeah yo yeah ya yeah
Argghh we've got problems with this microphone
God it's posh here isn't it?
Oooh it isn't half.
I thought Henley was posh.
Oh my god.
I've worked out if you just drop anchor in the middle of the Thames
You can do yeah .
Can you?
No I don't think so, it's a bit dangerous.
Catch up next week and see narrowboat Silver Fox getting towed away by the environment agency.
and i've forgotten,
I'm gonna have to go find out.
I've lifted him up because he keeps getting tangled around the tripod.
Right, oph no, don't move, don't move.
[Music plays to the end]
you