Through the Middle...

Today was looming to be an exciting and adventurous time on NB FireflyNZ.
Why?, because the time to travel along the Thames river and under the spectacular Tower Bridge had arrived.

Motored down from Paddington Basin to Limehouse Basin yesterday and moored the night in the basin. Booked in with the lock keeper and was told to enter the lock at 9.45am to catch the last couple of hours of the incoming tide for a fast ride to Teddington lock, the end of the tidal section.

Same as the night before Xmas, didn't need no alarm to awake early, was up and rearing to go. Only took two shouts from the lock keeper to get us there on time.

Limehouse....

Basin....

Moored with the lock ahead on the left...


Next morning, today,  a nice fine day...

Third and last NB into lock... NB Pukeko with Jim and Dawn from Takapuna NZ and a hire boat...

Jim taking a photo of us as I'm doing like wise ...

Looking back as we exit the lock...

 

Drop down to the Thames about eight feet..


Turn right some one said...

 

So we  did and.. bloody hell there's a lot of water out here.. There was quite a strong wind blowing against the tide and for the first 6 -7 miles when a big cat, passenger ferry,  or barge raced by, they do not slow down, it got sloppy.

Next to turn right was...

NB Pukeko....


Looking behind and...

 

Canary wharf with the tallest building, One Canada Square, in the UK.. 800ft..

Keep to the RH side...

Soon the...

Shard comes into view...

One of those fast...

Passenger Cats...

And got passed by a...

Couple of barges carrying containers of refuse...

The wash from a barge...

Smashes about a couple of moored boats..

And then the mighty  Tower bridge is getting closer..

 

NB Pukeko approaches...

And lines up..




The centre arch...

 

NB Firefly NZ follows...

 

And also through the centre span... the only one that Qualifies as a Pass.....

Out the other side...

 

And Leonie takes over....

Getting further away but that memory will always stay as close as...

 

Onwards toward the west....

And the familiar landmarks come to sight...

The Golden Hind...

 

Shakespeare Globe Theatre...

Saint Pauls Cathederal..

 

And the old....




Battersea Power Station...



 

The London Eye..

And the best way to see the many bridges that cross the Thames is from the water...

A selection...

Of some of the bridges we passed under..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking to the right as you pass the Westminster bridge the most famous...

Time piece in the world... Big Ben...

 

And the...

Houses of..

Parliament...

 

The wind dropped and the sun came out.....

Twenty miles in 3.5 hours to Teddington lock..
Purchased a License to proceed on the Thames, sixty nine pounds and fifty pence for 7 days, so onwards toward Bath we go...

 

Sharing the sun and the driving.....

Parked up tonight at Kingston....

 

The view out the side hatch....

Gum - Ball 3000....

Spent over a week in London and have had a good time checking out the town.
There's always plenty going on and it's choosing what to see and what not to see sets up the days and night time plans.
Saw that the Gumball 3000 rally was hitting town Sunday so later in the evening, about 9.30pm we headed to the centre of town to try ad locate the action.
The rally started in Florida, USA, on Thursday 5th June then they drove to NY,via Atlanta, arriving Friday evening then Saturday the cars, 60 odd, were flown to Scotland then on Sunday they drove to London, via Manchester, arriving Sunday evening. Monday drove to Paris, Tuesday to Barcelona then Wednesday to the coast to be ferried to Ibiza where the rally ended.
Pretty hectic schedule I reckon and one would need a fast car to keep up.

Well check out the following cars and form your own opinion..

Regent street was blocked off and had a gated entry avenue  for the arriving cars...

The finish line...

All the usual crowd were there.... up town...


Ferrari was the most common in numbers...

Like it's all we can afford for the rally....

 

 

 

 

There were a few....

Lamborghini.....

And  2 -3 cars that would keep up....

McLaren...... 
One of the McLarens was a 2014 650S, a one off....

Not fast enough then.....

 

Jump on the....

 

 

Bugatti Veyron.....  Siikk....

Or if that doesn't spin your wheels try a...

Audi R8...

 

Faster still...

 

 

Another Audi.... I think...

Anyway looked like it had stopped off to...

 

Race at Le Mans and still  managed to arrive on time...

Hoping it wasn't  going to rain were the team in...

The AC Cobra....

Also entered were Bentley and Rolls Royce coupe's.. a couple of Ford GT's... a 2014 Dodge Challenger... A 1966 Shelby Cobra....

Even the ....

 

 Media crew drove a McLaren.. To keep up.....

One would have expected cars of this value would have been parked away securely in an under ground car park. It took us a while to track down where they were and we found them in a small square on the edge of Soho.
Security tight?. Not even.
The cars were behind waist high temporary fencing and public were just pushing it aside to walk between cars to get photo's. I did.
Saw three teenagers carrying skate boards going between the tightly parked rows of cars.
No chance of scratching the paint there.
Anyway it was good to get close access to such quality and valuable machinery.

Got back to the NB about 12.30am....