It Doesn't Get Much Better

Thursday 2nd Sept 2010
Wallingford to Abingdon
13 Miles 4 Locks.

As I said in a previous blog it all depends on the weather and today it has been beautiful.
I was up early as we knew that the 2 boats moored on the inside of us wanted to be off by 8 o,clock, they got away about 8.15 and we moved over next to the wall, 10 minutes later the mooring Warden came by for the £5 mooring fee, we asked him what time he started work, 8.15 he replied, what a coincidence, exactly the time the other boats left.

Early morning view from No Direction.

The wall that the Moorings are against is about 3 feet above the back of a Narrowboat so Jayne had difficulty getting off the boat, but we managed it and walked into Wallingford, we found that the £5 mooring fee was well worth it, Wallingford is a really nice little town with some interesting old buildings, at least 7 pubs, a Fish & Chip shop and a very modern Waitrose Store, we did a food shop and were away from our Moorings at about 11 o'clock, very little wind and wall to wall sunshine which stayed with us all day.

The River here is still very wide, twisty and mostly lined by trees, we have noticed a lot of military helicopters flying around and discovered that we are close to R.A.F. Benson which was home to the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit during WW2 and now a base for Merlin and Puma Helicopters. The WW2 Pill boxes are still in place, put there to defend the Airfield against the expected German invasion.

We arrived at Clifton Lock while the Lock keeper was at lunch, so the sign was set to "Self Service" although there were 2 boats in front of us I was keen to have a go at pressing the buttons on the control panel, unlike Canal locks the gates and sluices (paddles to canal folk) are operated by Hydraulic rams which are controlled by pressing small buttons, I closed the upper gates and lowered the sluices after the previous boats have left, the Lock keeper came back on duty and took over so I had to stop playing and get back on the boat.

We are now moored on free council mooring just upstream from the A415 road bridge at Abingdon , and will probably stay here over the weekend as the mooring have a maximum stay of 5 days, it's nice to find a Town that makes boaters welcome and provides plenty of moorings.
All I know about Abingdon is that it was once famous for making M.G. Sports Cars, but not anymore.  Tomorrow we will have tour round the town and discover a bit more.