In early July we had a few days away in Henley on Thames whilst the Royal Regatta Rowing week was on. We had booked a couple of nights at the Four Oaks Campsite just a mile outside of Henley town centre. We had taken our bikes to make it easier to explore the best vantage points to watch the races. We didn’t have tickets to any of the enclosures so we were mixing with the common people.

We got to the campsite around 15.00 so we had time to cycle into town that afternoon and case the place. All of the rowing clubs and enclosures were on the Berks side of the river so we cycled across the bridge to that side where the famous Leander rowing club (of Steve Redgrave fame) was.

We had a lovely time watching the races with a beer in hand in the early evening sunshine. It was a real mix of people there but you got the impression that there was a lot of privileged people in all their finery and attitude as well as genuine rowing enthusiasts. Back to the van for a healthy meal whilst watching the Euros on our phones as we couldn’t get any TV reception via the aerial on top of Dora.

The weather forecast for Wednesday wasn’t great and every time we thought about leaving the van, it started to rain so that in the end it was well after 13.00 before it was dry enough to venture out. We kept to the Bucks side as we found a towpath that gave us a great view of the races that didn’t require us to go through town. Picnic blanket out with Pimms and nibbles until it started to rain more heavily and then back to Dora.

As the weather had deteriorated we splashed out on an extra long aerial cable that we could hook up to the site’s aerial and watched Wimbledon for the rest of the evening in the warm and dry.

We needed to be back home for Thursday lunchtime so we left the site around 11.00 after a lazy morning feeling that we had been away for more than a couple of nights. Just over an hour later we were back home. A lovely couple of days away albeit during a soggy British Summer!

Distance travelled this trip: 95 miles