Mooring on the river is a little different from coastal anchorage. The boat came equipped with two steel spikes (half-meter lengths of re-bar with one end ground into a point), a hammer, and a gangplank. The idea is to find a nice patch of riverbank that isn't totally covered in blackberry bush and stinging nettle, gently nudge the boat into the bank, and deploy a crew member ashore with hammer and spikes to set up fore and aft moorings.
As a result it became quite common to wake up to the sound of cattle grazing alongside the boat, peering in through the galley window at us while we prepared breakfast. Fortunately for the rather tasty looking Belgian Blues who joined us for breakfast, the boat came with a very small fridge, and there was no way the two of us could get through so much beef in one week!
The downside of mooring to the banks is the amount of wildlife that comes aboard. Within hours of mooring, we'd find half a dozen spiders (just harmless little European spiders) busy spinning their webs on the handrails and windows. Combined with the mud that inevitably comes aboard from the cow paddocks during mooring procedures and shoreside excursions, we soon gave up trying to keep the decks looking clean.
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