Twists and Turns

Weds/Thursday 8/9th Sept 2010
Oxford to Bablock Hythe
10 Miles 4 Locks.

Wednesday. Jayne called Oxford shopmobility first thing to see if she could have the use of a scooter, yes, and you can use it anywhere within the city limits was the answer,so we arrived at the shopping centre and found shopmobility, while Jayne was sorting a scooter out I put a £1 coin in the guide map dispenser and surprisingly it worked ! out came a tourists map.

Moored above Osney Lock, Oxford

We headed for the area where most of the colleges are and spent the morning there, we enjoyed doing the sights of Oxford much more that London, we found it better maintained with a lot less litter.

Jayne was supposed to remember the name of these buildings, but has forgotten

we will probably go back to Oxford next week so we will revisit them.

Cycle City, this is the cycle parking area at Oxford Train Station

Got back to the boat around 2.30 and as the weather was good I did a bit of paint touching up.

At 5 o,clock the Lock keeper came by to collect the £5 fee for staying on the mooring for an extra night but it was well worth it.

Thursday.   We had planned to move today but had not decided how far, it's the best way, just go as far as you feel like. We past under Osney bridge as we left the mooring, at 7 feet 6 inches between the water and the highest point of the bridge it stops the larger cruisers getting past Oxford.

Osney Bridge Oxford, no Gin Palaces get past here. The fencing on the left is work being carried out on the weir 

 We past Port Meadow on our right, a huge field, the river is wide here but the edges are shallow.

Just right for Cattle, not so good for Boats

The first Lock was Godstow, we arrived with blue Sky's and sunshine but with storm clouds gathering, 30 minutes later at the next lock, Kings Lock I was inside the boat getting the waterproofs as the sky was now very dark and the rain was starting.

Godstow,  another beautifully kept Thames Lock, with the cheerful lockie standing at the controls.

 All the guide books say how tight the bends are from Oxford to Lechlade and they are not wrong, it really gives your tiller arm a real workout, the other thing that gets a workout are the Lock keepers, so far on the Thames all the locks have been powered, Kings Lock was the first of the manual Locks, although the Lockie made it look easy.

Floods are nothing new.

We moored up at 2 o'clock just upstream of the Ferryman pub on some very nice 24 hour moorings.

Moored just upstream from the Ferryman Pub.

Went to the pub  tonight for a meal but we were not overly impressed, firstly they had trouble changing a £20 note for the drinks, secondly they had run out of Chips !!, ( I thought you made chips from Potato's) so Jayne's first choice of battered cod and chips was a none starter, just before we left Jayne popped to the toilet but came back and said "I will wait till I get back to the boat", however, having said all that, the meals we did have were very good so we must have caught them on a bad day. 

Very quite hear, no main roads, the only noise was from Chinook helicopters which we think were from RAF Odiham.
We will move a bit closer to Lechlade tomorrow, how far depends on the weather.