Bow and stern line were released and we slipped our mooring at 10.00am. It was a farewell to Oxford off along the Thames River. We decided not to go up onto the Oxford Canal at the Isis Lock as Fraser ran along the towpath last night and didn’t think it was particularly nice. Hence, another day on a now much narrower Thames River.
It only took us an hour to get to Dukes Cut which took us up to the Oxford Canal. We did find the cruise along this section of the Thames as being very open and there was an area called Port Meadow which was very flat and was obviously a flood plain.
Dukes cut certainly needed some maintenance on the foliage as we felt like we were hacking our way through the Amazon forest at times.
There is always something weird to see as you cruise along. Must be something to do with all the alternatives that live along its banks.
Finally, we are on the Oxford Canal and back to narrow locks. When you have been use to the large locks for so long the narrow locks look like toys but you must not get blasé as they are just as dangerous. These narrow locks confuse us as when you go uphill with locks you usually have two small doors at the bottom and one large door up the top. These locks are one large door and the bottom and top. Unusual.
We arrived at the small hamlet of Thrupp. It consists of two pubs and a few farm buildings. On arrival at 2.00pm we spent some time catching up and actually just sitting down and doing some reading. Going forward we should be down to 3.5 hours cruising per day which is very relaxing. We have some very warm days coming up so it is best to travel earlier in the day. Today it got to 29c which is very sapping when you are outside all the time.
Following our dinner we went on a dessert pub crawl. We were moored between the two pubs and headed off to The Boat pub first for a drink and to share a fudge pudding with ice cream.
The Boat Inn has also featured a number of times in the popular, detective drama series Inspector Morse, based on a series of novels by Colin Dexter. It starred the legendary John Thaw as Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as Sergeant Lewis. The Morse Dining Room has many photographic tributes of the episodes featuring the pub.
By now it was starting to get dark but we still managed to find our way along the towpath to The Jolly Boatman where we shared an Apple Crumble. We really didn’t deserve these desserts but we needed to visit both pubs as a friend’s family originated from Thrupp. They use to have a carriage making business and we don’t have any other history but we raised a glass for them.
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