Such excitement

 The view from the side hatch today

Is it a house or a fort!

What an  exciting day it's been today!

We left Cooham just after 10 this morning and headed back to Marlow as I wanted to have a look in the charity shops for a couple of summer tops.

We arrived at Marlow Lock Moorings about midday, the moorings adjoin a small park and the path through the park leads eventually to Marlow High Street.

We went for a walk along the High Street, there are 5 or 6 charity shops there, so I was spoilt for choice.

We eventually arrived back at the boat and I made lunch, hot dogs in finger rolls.

Just as we finished lunch when a 70ft narrowboat hoves into view, they had hoped to moor above the lock but there was no room and they needed to get some shopping.

We invited them to breast up alongside us which they did.

No sooner had they tied up and left their boat than a man in a hi-vis jacket arrived to tell us that the park was being fenced off in 5 minutes and there would be no access for a few days whilst flood relief work was carried out.

We explained that there were 6 boats on the mooring and that people would need to get back to their boats.

Hi-vis man said they had 5 minutes to return to their boats as the park would be fenced off. He insisted that there were plenty of signs and that we and the other boaters should have read said signs. CHS asked him to point out the signs as there were none on the moorings, he walked to the park entrance with CHS and triumphantly pointed to the sign. which read 'Flood Relief work starting here this summer' Well that was really helpful, no dates and nowhere did it say that the park was to be closed.

I phoned the company that own the mooring but they couldn't help, I then phoned the Environment Agency, who tried to help but it is such a huge body they couldn't find out who I needed to speak to. They did eventually arrange for the lock keeper to come and see me, but he didn't arrive.

CHS, in the mean time was still talking to the contractors who were due to close off the park and he managed to persuade them to leave the park open until 6am tomorrow morning

After that, who knows, we understand that the work need to be done, but signage needs to be in place. Many people live aboard as we do and how can they just be refused access to their home.