Oxford

12th July

Here we are again. Moored opposite the still not started Jericho wharf . We were hoping this new development would have been opened by now but it seems there are still local problems. The footbridge over to Jericho is closed for repairs so we took the long route to The Bookbinders for dinner. Still our favourite pub.
This is not a quiet mooring, the church clock sounds the hour and the trains shunt and the towpath is always busy with people heading for the city center and the station but it is a good position . We drank rather too much on this warm evening and staggered back to the boat. Our Geordie neighbours were friendly and thrilled with their week long holiday and we spoke to another couple who were moored waiting for family members to join them. They tipped us off to another good pub in town, but I think we will stick to the ones we like.

Bookbinders unique atmosphere

when will work start?

Back on our mooring

9th August

On Sunday we left the Thames via Dukes Cut to join 'our' canal and make the journey back to our mooring. The bad weather spurred us on to cover longer distances in order to finish this trip, sadly. We have got more and more fed up with wind, rain and low temperatures. We stopped at Thrupp and had a good pint in the Boat Inn, then a longer day to stop in Aynho where we had an average dinner in The Great Western Arms, then yesterday pressed on to Banbury, a short trip in incessant heavy rain but with long waits at locks. All the moorings in Banbury centre were taken by the time we got there, so we moored further along and because we had got so wet and miserable throughout the day, we lit the fire and enjoyed warming red wine with our dinner. Anyone would think it was winter with the rain hammering down outside.

Today we did a long day, once again in pouring rain, to get back onto our Fenny mooring. Fire alight again! Coming through Cropredy the moored boats ready for the festival this weekend looked sad and bedraggled with their dripping bunting and flags flying - still hopefully it will be fine by Friday and the field won't be too muddy! We passed John and Tina's boat, they never fail to make the music festivals!

Strange the things you see as you travel. A man stripped to the waist shaving his head on the back of his boat. Deer on the towpath, Pete thought it was a dog!!! A specially built set of steps to a cat flap in a downstairs window of a property fronting the towpath. All manner of TV aerials and their contraptions to get them high enough for a signal. All sorts of flowers, vegetables and colourful containers on boat roofs. Moored boats with peculiar mannequins in their windows to put you off breaking into them. Lots of skulls, skeletons and ghouls hanging in windows to do the same. Lots of signs: "there are good souls who pass slowly by moored boats and there are souls who don't" . People you chat to in passing; a couple who were out just for the day with 3 grandchildren, attempting to instill a love of narrowboating into them as they had found for themselves. A couple who live aboard, they let their house and have not looked back - living their dream. A couple who had come out for 3 months cruising and were headed for Cambridge but said they may not get there in time for getting back to their duties looking after grandchildren after school. Snippets of chat as you lock through with people who have been captured by this way of life as we have, some locks so slow you can get a life story in!

And so we finish some touch-up painting around the windows, sweep out and clean up our little home, pack up the car and leave. The scars of the journey will have to wait for another time - bangs and scratches unavoidable in some situations and Ani bears the brunt. But once again, she has proved to be an amazing vessel with all we need for a comfortable travelling life. We just wish we'd had the weather to properly enjoy it.

lads on holiday, music blaring, beers on the go and look at that lean!! Something wrong with the boat? They put it down to their weight, but when they switched sides it was still listing.

home mooring

THINK THAT IS ALL THE PHOTOS ADDED TO ALL POSTS NOW TOO!

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Train back to London

5th August
I left Pete to do the shopping and go canoeing and took the train from Oxford to Finsbury Park to spend the day with my boys, Fran, grandchildren and extended family, Ann, Adam, Romany and Zeb. I had a wonderful day with them all and Olly and Fran gave us all a great lunch with Olly dodging the rain to BBQ. We actually managed to find a warm part of the day to sit and eat in their pretty, newly planted garden which was something given this choppy changey weather.

My little grandson kept us amused watering the patio (?!) and singing his whole repertoire of songs - "let's do it again!" - accompanied by his new tambourine (present from Ann and family) with me on maracas and Ann on castanets. We got a lot of applause. Might be a new band in the making here.

Got back to the boat around 8.30pm, Pete meeting my train. Poor chap had not paddled as there had been a huge thunderstorm at the time he had wanted to go. This weather is infuriating.

We watched the amazing Usain Bolt lose his final race in London before going to bed.

Rowan, Laurie, Romany and Zeb

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Gentleman on a go-slow

4th August
Awful day yesterday with winds of 20mph battering us from Wallingford. As a result we called it a day around 2pm in the gentle shelter of Clifton Lock Cut at £8.90 a night. It was a relief to stop, not because the going was particularly hard but just that relentless wind is like a slow torture on such open waters. We were exhausted! Pete managed to paddle his new canoe however and we enjoyed a peaceful evening.

Today, sunshine again at at last. Still windy but not as bad. A warm cruise then through Abingdon Lock with a new-to-boating couple (we presumed) as they moored to wait for the lock halfway along the waiting place even though they had just past us in the river and knew how long we were. Pete stopped about 15cms from their stern and the owner chirped up with " have you got enough room, should we move up?" - he had already tied off his ropes, so only just! Then at Sandford Lock we waited whilst it emptied of boats and started to go in and the volunteer lock keeper proceeded to shut the gates! Hooting and whistling, we got his attention and got in - he did apologise, he hadn't seen us! We were followed in by a beautifully planted and well cared for narrowboat which we had seen earlier aground in Abingdon ( he was being rescued as we passed). This elderly gentleman owner got his stern rope onto the bollard and the lady lock keeper put his bowline on for him and walked the rope back for him to hold. But there was no elderly gentleman at the back of the boat to take it, nor was he holding his stern rope; nowhere to be seen. The lock keeper gave a loud whistle as good as any I have ever heard at a rock concert ( she surprised herself) and Pete called and banged the side of our boat to draw the skipper's attention to no avail. In his own sweet time, he reappeared with a cup of tea!!!! Presumably he assumed that the lady lock keeper would control his ropes for him? What with that and the volunteer then opening the sluices without watching for the lock keepers go-ahead, we decided it was amateur hour! Hey ho, that's boating for you.

We took up a mooring by the Punters pub in Oxford again and walked to our more favoured Bookbinders for a French evening meal - yummy. The landlord's dog, Belle, sits in a chair opposite the door and surveys all who pass through with what appears to be utter disdain or may simply be boredom! A sign above her says 'if you want the best seat in the house, move the dog' ! Their wi-fi password is welovebelle and don't we just!


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Reading, new canoe

1st August
We moved on from Sonning to Reading, moored temporarily before the K&A entrance so that Pete could test drive a new (second hand) canoe. He paddled off in his racing kayak to Marsports and whilst he was trying out others the heavens opened! Eventually the decision was made and he traded his old kayak for a new more stable one. It is an almost unmentioned fact that having reached a certain age and no longer racing, paddling in Chichester harbour instead when not on these river and canal travels, he needs a different style of boat. To my untrained eye this one looks much like the last only slightly wider - the only newly outstanding feature is the top surface has sparkling glitter in it!!

We continued on to moor in Pangbourne - grabbing the last mooring in the long row of boats and having to hang the stern out as the bank is so irregular. Our neighbour remarked that it wasn't as crowded last night and that several boats had left this morning, hmmmm, giving himself away that he was staying on a 24hour mooring for 48? A pair of narrowboats abreast further down on this same stretch have been here since we moored on our outward trip. One of the boats was being kitted out with furniture at that time, the owners lugging beds and wardrobes (?) across the meadows. I presume they have some kind of deal going to be allowed to stay here this long, but it does niggle when boaters take up visitor moorings for long stretches as it is flouting the rules and really unfair on those that stick by them.

Moan over. It turned out to be a reasonably warm evening, although still windy, so Pete paddled off in glittering glory, whilst I read my book.


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Sonning moorings

31st July
The Sonning moorings are a little confusing now. The signs tell you to ring a number to pay for your night's stay. When you ring it, a voice message tells you to put your £10 in the post box provided on the fence, together with date and name of boat and tells you the proceeds go to charity. Which one I wonder? There are CCTVs to check on you, but I wonder how many boaters just don't bother with their payment.

Then at Dorchester where we have moored free of charge before downstream of Day's lock in a beautiful setting, there are now private property signs for half of the bank, therefore restricting the amount of mooring spaces, after these signs you are allowed to moor but charged. It is fair enough I suppose if the land is privately owned, but we can't help but think the amount of free moorings is dwindling fast on the Thames - there were never that many in the first place.

worth all the fuss though:

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