Our last day on the Oxford Canal as well as on the narrow locks.
We set off from Thrupp on yet another sunny day with our first task of picking blackberries for the crumble tonight done in five minutes.
Next task besides enjoyng the scenery and the beauty that the canals provide, was to fill up with water prior to getting to the Thames.
It does help to keep the bow lower in the water especially as we are heading onto a river.
We had four locks to do prior to turning onto Duke’s cut which took us across to the Thames River.
We have highlighted the area of the Duke’s Cut which bypasses having to go into Oxford. We will go to Oxford for a day on our return from Lechlade which is at the end of navigatable Thames.
Our final farewell to the Oxford Canal which we have thoroughly enjoyed, and this time took it a lot slower as back in 2019 it was a bit of a mad dash. We were making our way north on it to meet a deadline and didn’t get the chance to really take it in.
We seem to have had quite the fascination with cats on this trip as this is the third one that tried to climb on the boat. We missed getting it on video but here you will see just how nonchalant it is around the boats and water.
For this next part of cruising which will take us upstream on the Thames we have swapped to the Nicolson’s guides which we are not familiar with. We will only require their assistance whilst we are on the Thames north of Oxford. After that, we will be back on our faithful Pearson’s guides.
Now that we are on the Thames River, a number of things happen. We are no longer under the auspices of the Canal and River Trust (CRT) but under the Environmental Agency (EA) which overseas the Thames. For this pleasure, we had to cough up 211 pounds – ouch!!! It will cover us for the 22 days that we are on the non-tidal Thames portion and some more. We were told it was cheaper for pay for a month than three weeks, so that is what we did.
We are now on large river locks that are all manned – for that price one would hope they were manned.
Just a short distance from the only river lock for today we found a great mooring. It is always difficult to find moorings on the Thames as the banks are anything but set up for it. As we settled in, the people moored in front of us all jumped into the river for a swim. The weather ahead for the foreseeable is heading into the 30’s again, so we might well be following them in the next day or two.
This final photo is for Fraser’s sister in law in NZ – no explanation except to say that she will understand the significance of it.
LATE ADDITION:
Fraser returned to the boat after his run and decided it was his turn to cool off in the Thames River.
Prior to diving in, he did check for the depth of the water.
Then came the task of getting out……………………
Rowkin Rovings Blog 