29th April '13

OK, I'll admit it, I was wrong, I'm enjoying most of the Thames that we've been on so far. It's been a long day so I'll say it with pictures.

Well I would if I could upload them in less than 10minutes each. I'll go and cook tea and see if it's better later.

Here we are coming out of the Isis lock onto the Thames. We started early today so this was about 9.30 - well it impressed me!

This is an old railway turntable that obviously used to hold up the boats when the trains were using it. It just seemed so strange to see that I had to photograph it.

Allison and Charlie on Free Spirit waiting for us - Dave is at the front sorting out the bow rope. This is just before the first of the big locks that have wonderful lock-keepers who do it all for you.

Here we both are in the lock - I asked one of the lock-keepers how big they were and he said that he'd be able to get a 50' boat in front of us plus the same on the other side so if they were smaller boats they'd get quite a few in. At one lock we had a plastic pig in with us.

These are some of the boat houses for the Oxford boats. Unlike at Cambridge we didn't see any boats out rowing in Oxford although we did see some later on at Abingdon.

Looking back on the river - a bit wider than the canals we're used to but it's quite a lot easier than I expected, and SO beautiful.

 

Here we are following the others along where the river goes off to a weir on the right and we go left towards the lock. It looks quite a nice day, but it was very cold and pretty windy despite the sun doing it's best.

This is the weir at Abingdon - thank heavens for locks! The river is amazingly quiet, we have only passed a few boats in either direction all day. Long may it last!

The first family of goslings we have seen - ahhhh.

These were opposite our mooring at Abingdon - it looks a lovely place - probably worth a good look around at some point, but John had only bought a 3 day license for the Thames so after an awful mooring (despite being told otherwise, John felt sure we'd be OK with the middle rope to pull us in, even with the help of others it was impossible, so he had to turn completely around in the river and moor, which then meant that he had to turn the boat again before leaving) we had a quick lunch, popped into the Co-op for some supplies, said au revoir to Allison and Dave and continued on our way.

Then I remembered the other thing I hated about rivers - the lack of moorings. We only intended to go about an hour along and there were moorings marked on the guide. Well I can only say that no moorings were seen. We continued on for quite a bit further and eventually found what is laughingly called a mooring. The edges are all in and out, we're pretty much grounded at the hull and there's nothing resembling a path to be seen. Still we are here and the interesting fact of the day is that the village of Dorchester (not that one) that lies over the way, hosts the World Pooh Stick Championship! Isn't that great?

What can tomorrow hold I ask myself?