Glorious morning for our travel from Abingdon to Thrupp; warm sunshine, blue skies and the river like silk. Our Thames licence runs out today so we have to be off the river by nightfall. Stopped at Osney bridge in order to pick up my train ticket from Oxford station for my Saturday travel home to see mum and collect the car, ready to return to Pete somewhere up the Oxford canal on our way to our mooring where we will have to unload all our stuff off the boat to drive home.
At Iffley lock we met a lecturing lock keeper. The self service sign was up, so I dutifully disembarked to operate the gates, opened them, Pete drove in and threw me the mid line so that we could secure the boat before roping with the bow and stern lines - completely normal thing to do..the lock keeper arrived back from wherever he had been, took over and promptly told me that I needed to put a bow line on and man it ( I said I knew that) . Then as we were leaving the lock, he informed me that the next one was manned, but 3 times deeper and I would need to use the bow line. All this in front of some other chap who we think was a volunteer learning the job. Also as we left we spotted a 'river inspector' boat, so,presumably our lock keeper had something to prove. There are ways of being helpful and all the other keepers and volunteers we have encountered have been - so it's a little frustrating when you get a show off like this, especially when we have been boating so long and we do know what to do! By contrast, the very young lock keeper at Abingdon last night was absolutely charming, relaxed and informative and chatted to us as if he had known us for years.
We travelled the longest day we have done on this trip: 8 hours with ease. Don't know what these people moaning about their working days are talking about and we didn't even stop for lunch! We got a comment from a passer by today; " stop enjoying yourselves" - sorry , it is pleasurable work!!
At Iffley lock we met a lecturing lock keeper. The self service sign was up, so I dutifully disembarked to operate the gates, opened them, Pete drove in and threw me the mid line so that we could secure the boat before roping with the bow and stern lines - completely normal thing to do..the lock keeper arrived back from wherever he had been, took over and promptly told me that I needed to put a bow line on and man it ( I said I knew that) . Then as we were leaving the lock, he informed me that the next one was manned, but 3 times deeper and I would need to use the bow line. All this in front of some other chap who we think was a volunteer learning the job. Also as we left we spotted a 'river inspector' boat, so,presumably our lock keeper had something to prove. There are ways of being helpful and all the other keepers and volunteers we have encountered have been - so it's a little frustrating when you get a show off like this, especially when we have been boating so long and we do know what to do! By contrast, the very young lock keeper at Abingdon last night was absolutely charming, relaxed and informative and chatted to us as if he had known us for years.
We travelled the longest day we have done on this trip: 8 hours with ease. Don't know what these people moaning about their working days are talking about and we didn't even stop for lunch! We got a comment from a passer by today; " stop enjoying yourselves" - sorry , it is pleasurable work!!
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