Tuesday 2nd July
Our aim was to move the boat as quickly as possible down to Oxford and then onto the River Thames on Thursday and Friday as Dick still gets American holidays off and not UK ones, so he had July 4th off and was taking July 5th as a holiday. In the mean time, he was still working from the boat, therefore we also needed to move around his meeting schedules.
We left Thrupp the next morning by 10AM after Dick had already worked a few hours. The aim was to get into north Oxford by lunchtime. However, what we didn't realize was that much of the canal moorings in the three miles north of Oxford are Agenda 21 residential moorings and you do have to go further into Oxford for a temporary mooring. We eventually found a mooring in Wolvercote so Dick could work the rest of the day, but it was a long way from any facilities to empty the rubbish and the toilet.
I walked further along the canal path whilst Dick was working and found a better 2 day mooring closer into Oxford. We moved a little later in the day just a short way down the canal.
Oxford has some lovely paintings on their bridges
My favourite Kingfisher painting
After dinner on the boat, Dick and I walked into Oxford to explore and found the Royal Blenheim pub for a pint of well deserved local beer
Wednesday 3rd July
Dick worked all day to catch up on his hours and I went shopping! This was my first opportunity to buy some of the things that were missing on the boat, for example, the clothes horse, some kitchen utensils, chopping boards and clothes hangers. Not that there is much space to hang clothes as the cupboard is used to store all manner of other bits too, for example, the mop, broom, bucket, oil for the engine, the mooring pins, the first aid kit, and the coats as well as most of the shoes!
Thursday 4th July - Both Independence Day in the US, and Election Day in the UK.
The start of the Thames adventure. By 9 AM we were on our way and through the last lock on the Oxford Canal before joining the River Thames.
The Isis Lock with its famous iron bridge.
We were one of the first customers for the Osney Lockkeeper that morning. The big Thames locks are usually manned from 9 AM until 5 PM. They operate the electric locks much quicker than we are allowed to do ourselves, but first we had to buy a Thames River permit from her. It turned out to be cheaper to buy a permit for a week than it was for 2 days!? She explained all the rules on the river and was generally very helpful.
Our license
Out onto the big wide Thames
To be truthful, we had been a bit scared of the thought of taking a 54ft narrowboat on the Thames which is not only a fast flowing river but has a lot more traffic on it. However, we were pleasantly surprised. Other boats knew we couldn't travel that fast and gave us a wide berth and most were very considerate with their wake. Being such a wide river, it's easy to navigate too. It was turning out to be a nice day to dry washing so I took advantage of the breeze from the river, made sure everything was secure and washed and dried as much as I could!
We were lucky to go through four manned locks - Clifton Lock was the prettiest with lots of flowers, and the lock keeper sold ice cream to fund his flower obsession which we were very happy to take advantage of!
One of the wide corners near Abingdon Lock.
It was already a long day and we called ahead to several places marked as suitable for mooring but they were all full. We hadn't expected it to be so difficult to find a mooring during the week. Luckily, at our seventh lock of the day (Benson Lock), we spotted a narrowboat moored near a lock wall, and we asked them how they had managed it. They said that the lock keeper had charged them twelve pounds to stay there and we were welcome to join them if we could catch him before he left. There was just enough room to fit us both there, and having paid we were delighted to be able to stop for the day. Ironically, two weeks later the same narrowboat went past us at Newbury.
We walked into Wallingford and had dinner at the Old Post Office whilst people were still lining up to vote in the general election outside the town hall there.
Friday 5th July
The second day on the Thames is one we won't forget, mainly because it turned out to be a very long, and later, a very wet one.
We left Benson Lock and kept a close eye on where other boats were moored for the way back. The weather was a little hit and miss all day- another boater described it as COCO (Coats On, Coats Off).
Eight locks later we were relieved to get to Caversham lock- the last one on the Thames before turning on to the Kennet and Avon Canal. Our plan was to stay in Reading overnight. However, this is when we shouldn't have listened to the lock keeper. He was a volunteer live aboard and knew the canal well. We asked him for any hints and he said not to stop in Reading but to go on to a lovely little pub called the Cunning Man, just a couple of miles away. Oh boy, we should not have listened. At this point, the heavens opened and torrential rain started, so the river was running very fast against us. We had no choice but to carry on once we went through the town centre as that was the last mooring for a while. First we had to tackle the one way canal traffic light system - easy to do but hard to get to the button to start the process! That over with, we had to make it through one more lock. A lock next to a very fast moving weir. Dick had trouble getting the boat near the lock and I couldn't open the lock gates as the flow of the river was so strong and the gate was leaking so much, I physically couldn't move the gates. Both of us had to persevere as Dick was fighting the current which ended up pushing the boat around, and he had to turn it to control it. He managed to get it in position and I finally got the gates open. It was a real relief but both of us were soaked through despite having good waterproofs on.
Going through Newbury in torrential rain
That wasn't the end. We had to fight against the strong current through fallen branches and around tight bends with no end in sight. We didn't have any choice but to keep going as there was nowhere to stop and moor. The next lock brought some relief as the river was diverted a bit and the canal was flowing more slowly. It was still raining hard. Eventually we found the pub but even mooring up there was hard- hanging onto the ropes of a narrowboat fighting the current whilst trying to drive in the stakes to tie up to is not fun. At that point we were so tired and wet, we were worried about making mistakes. We did it though. We piled inside the boat, turned on the heating as we were also cold and both had a quick hot shower. Next stop- the pub. Thank goodness the lock keeper was not wrong. Great food, a beer and then wine and the world was put to rights. The boat was still tied up when we went back to it, so that was also a relief!
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