No complaints about our mooring in Brentford at all so after a peaceful night’s sleep we awoke and made plans to visit Kew Gardens situated just a couple of miles away. Neither of us had been there before so armed with no more than cameras, enthusiasm and a bit of cash in our pockets, we locked Caxton up and started walking.

Brentford High Street is like many of the greater London towns that have been absorbed into the metropolis. Somewhere between Staines and Hampton Court we had ventured into the enlarged London; the buses are red and carry the tfl logo and the businesses advertise 0208 phone numbers. Where the border actually is, I’m not certain but we had definitely crossed it.

By the time we had reached Kew Bridge we could see the tide was well and truly out leaving boats beached on the riverbed. When we returned four hours later, the tide was in and the scene had changed.

The view from Kew Bridge at 10.45

Narrowboats sitting on the riverbed.

Four hours later.

We weren’t disappointed with our visit to Kew, there is much to see in this huge park so once again I’ll let some pictures give the reader a flavour of the place.

Kew Palace.

The Palace back garden.

The Hive.

Davies Alpine House.

Princess of Wales Conservatory.

The watercolourist.

Gardeners hard at work in the sunshine.

The Palm House

A Chinese Lion.