The next morning we awoke to discover that the river had dropped overnight and we were aground. After a bit of a struggle we managed to get off the mud and into deeper water.
When we reached Reading we stopped off to do some shopping at the supermarket located conveniently close to the river. Reading was full of young people making their way to the Reading Festival. We also met up with Mark, the artist who has a studio aboard the old wooden Humber keel, Laurel.
We said hello to Mark, who was busy using his small boat to provide a hair braiding service to people attending the festival.
Continuing up through Reading we came to another keel, Hope, which is owned by our friend Matt. He had been working very hard since our last visit and she was looking very smart. He had also done a lot of work below decks.
After stopping to catch up with Matt we continued up river as far as Mapledurham where we planned to moor up for the night. After we arrived Sally and Ali decided they would like to collect some blackberries, but they also wanted to have a swim in the river. They somehow managed to combine both activities.
