Thursday evening

Left Kingston on Wednesday and met Pete at Radcott after all, as Kelmscott moorings all taken. I was able to leave the car in the Swan pub car park overflow for the night and as we walked back from mooring to have dinner at the pub Pete spotted an old buddy from his canoeing hey days along with several others from Brice Norton unloading canoes for a training session. Pete looked very wistful but as his canoe was still on the roof of Ani at our mooring he couldn't easily join them. He did have a good reminisce with his friend (another Pete) over a pint though.
This evening after travelling for all of 3 hours, we are on another peaceful mooring at Newbridge. Sunshine all day, but a cool wind. Not many boats on the winding river so a slow tranquil day with sitings of kingfishers always too quick to get a photo of.
Pete has canoed back to get the car whilst I sit in the bow with my book.
Great life this!

Photos

September Saturday morning at Lechlade




Barbying on the bank with Jack and Simon





Kingfisher country

Friends on board and sunshine!

Woke up on Saturday morning in Lechlade to thick fog - couldn't see the other side of the river! Our solar panels indicated there was plenty of sun up there somewhere and the fog burned off in time for our mates, Jack and Simon to arrive at 12 noon (early for them!)
We had a pint in the New Inn on the waterside before setting off for a cruise. Lechlade is a pretty village, but a through route for lots of traffic. A good butcher and green grocers here though, unlike many village stops, so we stocked up and Jack found the wine merchants whose knowledgable owner guided her to 3 very nice wines for later -  thanks, Jack.
We boated to Kelmscott and moored on the last available space, it being a hot day and everyone out for the weekend. We BBQ ed on the bank with the sun going down and the rooks cawing as they roosted. Pete lit the fire inside early so that the boat was toasty once the sun had gone. Great evening with good friends, food and wine. Ended with a somewhat chaotic re-arranging of furniture and blowing up of air beds before we finally retired.
On Sunday after visiting the Plough and taking in Kelmscott's beauty (unfortunately William Morris' house is only open for visits Saturdays and Wednesdays) we headed back to Lechlade and subjected J and S to the faff of topping up water and pumping out. They were very tolerant! A couple in their 70s locked through with us who have had their boat for 32 years. I was so impressed by the woman who was managing to gracefully throw ropes in a flowing flowery dress and gold flip flops! She even had her glasses on a chain around her neck. Now if I attempted all that, the glasses would be caught on something and lost in the river, the flip flops would end up with goose poo on them and the dress would probably cause me to trip! Hats off to her!

At the end of our day Jack and Simon drove me back to our car which was still in Oxford so that I could visit my parents as Dad had just been discharged from a short time in hospital. So I am writing this from his computer in Kingston. My parents are now getting used to a newer routine, not easy for either of them but they both still manage to smile!
Pete has remained on the boat until I return, probably Wednesday.

The people you meet

There is such a variation of types of people on waterways. We have met many. Last night it was Deb and Dale who moored in front of us at Bablock Hythe. Lots of jovial shouting as they came into the bank, with Deb (as I did) not sure she could make the jump! We got chatting to them later when we realised the pub near the moorings didn't open on Tuesdays! They knew of another one 20minutes (?) up the road in Northmoor. They had bikes, we were on foot, so more like 30 minutes for us. We spent a mad couple of hours with them at the Red Lion, swapping stories of boating embarrassments mainly involving 'gardening' as we call it: inadvertently plowing through overhangs and in my case shrieking "the chimney hat, the chimney hat!" as if that would save it from being whisked off by an especially vicious branch. Deb's tale was of being in sole charge of the boat as Dale stepped off muttering 'mind the weir' . The force sent her into a 360 degree spin, hitting another boat and causing a fisherman to leap to his feet. As she said; how she managed to turn a 54' boat in a 40' wide canal, she will never know. Amidst all this she found time to applaud the fisherman for his catch, a small fish on the end of his hastily retrieved line, to which he grumpily replied, 'that's the bait' !
These mishaps always happen with an audience too, the gongoozlers. Not funny at the time!

Deb and Dale went back to their boat for sausage casserole on a bed of wheetabix! Totally bonkers.

Tonight we looked for the non existent but marked in the book moorings at Tadpole ( great name!) Faringdon, so instead we are on a mooring upstream of Rushey Lock and intend to walk back to what looks like a nice pub at Tadpole.
Boating's one slow pub crawl really.

Out onto the Thames

Monday
We left our mooring and took the very unceremonious waterway from the canal onto the Thames, under an incredibly low grafittied railway bridge where pigeons were roosting and flapped out ahead of us. Sometimes I wonder how you are supposed to find exits and entrances to smaller rivers and canals, there is so often no signage and if they are overgrown as with this summer, they are virtually invisible.
Once on the Thames and heading upstream though the wide openness was a joy and it has been a lovely hot day without a cloud in the sky. There's the added bonus of not having to man locks ourselves. Very pleasant helpful lock keepers do it all for you and the locks are so pretty and well kept.
Our guide book must be seriously out of date, all the marked moorings seemed non existent, with wobbly overgrown banks it would be impossible to jump onto. When I asked a lock keeper about one area she told me a lot had become private moorings and the Perch Inn pontoon had a sign on it: No Mooring! I would hope you can moor if you want a pint.
However, the charming lock keeper at Eynesham lock told us of some beyond Eynesham bridge, some £5 per night and others free, so we beetled on, then decided to stop at the end of the lock cut anyway as there was a24hr mooring notice and a nice bollarded bank. So here we are after Pete canoeing and hot showers, with the BBQ going once again, swans pestering us at the side hatch (they virtually put their whole necks inside the boat) and the sun sinking down. Think we will have to put our newly bought heater on later though - it's certainly turning chilly in the evenings and we aren't at fire lighting stage quite yet.







Eynesham

Beautiful Oxford

Moored at the end of the Oxford canal, Isis lock, ready to head out onto the Thames upstream. We will be here for a couple of nights as there are warnings of high water and strong streams on river. I can't think of a nicer place to be held up though and we even had some sunshine and warmth yesterday!

Wish I had been cleverer - what a place to study in.......























'Now that's an idea.....'

Visit

Margaret came to join us from Banbury to Thrupp. She experienced the palaver of car moving so that we have a car at our destination. Not easy and sometimes impossible. Still we managed to have both our cars in Thrupp, so that we could drive into Oxford for a day's sightseeing. We left Pete behind minding the boat. He and I will visit the dreaming spires another day when we are moored nearer.
What a beautiful city. We were enthralled by the university buildings. Their tranquil grandeur must provide the perfect setting for those privileged students to focus on their work. Mind you, they clearly enjoy their (also privileged) time off - see M's photo, taken at the foot of the stairs to rooms!
Hooray, Henry.

Margaret braved the air bed, experienced the Cobb BBQ, worked locks and was very appreciative. You cannot have private time on a narrowboat but she never complained!

I returned home for a couple of days to help move Dan's stuff back to our house, so that he is free to move up to London again to start the next phase in his life. Look out, Olly and Fran.


Yes - it is all champagne! .........