We left the Thames via Duke's Cut this time instead of our usual route in and out of the Oxford Canal; Sheepwash Channel and Isis lock. At one point we thought we might have taken the wrong turning as the cut gets more and more overgrown as you progress. A real dingley dell. Lots of gypsy boats down here hiding away in the undergrowth and reeds and we were in a completely different world to the one we had just left of the open lake-like waters of Port Meadow. The Cut is a real fairy tale backwater, one that time and maintenance has forgotten. An abandoned and untethered boat was blocking the way at one point, floating free sideways across the cut - I couldn't push it aside because of reeds again and we were gradually being forced into an overhanging willow which might well have taken out our TV aerial and the chimney hat in one swoop (disaster, darling!) Pete's dexterous navigating managed to gently push it out of the way eventually. This passage of about 45 minutes was a strange interlude, slightly surreal and dreamlike.
At the end we went through the tiniest, shallowest lock following after a solo lady boater who told me she had severe blisters on her feet from some bargain charity shop shoes she had bought and this was why she was moving around the lock so slowly. Sort of completed the bizarre experience really.
The Duke's Cut (and the duchess is quite drunk too) Boom boom.
At the end we went through the tiniest, shallowest lock following after a solo lady boater who told me she had severe blisters on her feet from some bargain charity shop shoes she had bought and this was why she was moving around the lock so slowly. Sort of completed the bizarre experience really.
The Duke's Cut (and the duchess is quite drunk too) Boom boom.
No comments:
Post a Comment