Our day started off with a brisk walk of 20 minutes to Rousham House. The house, which has been continuously in the ownership of one family, was built circa 1635.
Fairly imposing large pile of bricks but not the reason we visited there. It is not possible to tour through the house as it is only the gardens that are open to the public.
It was all about the gardens.
Not your typical English manicured garden.
Not sure how they get away with it but no children under the age of 15 allowed!
We spent over an hour wandering around the expansive lawns and wooded areas enjoying all the different “rooms” that had been created.
This rather good looking fellow is a Barbu D’Uccle Bantam.
The flock were roaming around the grounds freely which is nice but one big draw back. We spoke to one of the gardeners who said that they were all housed in secure pens at night but during the day it is not unusual for Mr Big Bad Fox to come along and take off with one of them.
After our pleasant time in the gardens, it was back to work on the canals.
Another one of those diamond shaped locks which was between the Oxford Canal and the Cherwell river.
We were back on the river Cherwell between the last two locks of the day for a distance of about two kilometers. It was much deeper than the canal with a bit of a current, so we were able to motor quite fast. Well, we thought we were going fast until we met this Speedy Gonzales and he was coming upstream. He only just managed to hang onto his boat.
Our spot tonight is in the village of Thrupp. Plans are afoot to stay in the village for the next three nights as we are off to Blenheim Palace tomorrow and a play the following night in the village. We were very fortunate in grabbing the last of the seven day mooring spots.
Now we don’t usually rate boating facilities but the one here in Thrupp has got to be the cleanest and best maintained one on the entire network that we have come across.
This is also the site of one of the Inspector Morse episodes.
The Last Enemy 1989 was the episode which they shot from the Waymark Canal Bridge here in Thrupp.
As it is today – not much has changed. We settled in for the afternoon at 3.00pm and spent a relaxing afternoon catching up on mail and enjoying the sunshine and quiet.
About 6.00pm, we wandered up the laneway to the Boat Inn. This little pub was also made famous because of Inspector Morse.
Inside there was a lot of paraphenallia regarding the TV series.
We were exceptionally good tonight and only had a quick drink and declined the dessert menu.
It was but a short stroll back to the boat and another night of Commonwealth Games updates.
Rowkin Rovings Blog 