Monday 12th June '17

We spent a good day in Oxford yesterday. We'd gone for a walk the evening before and found our way around Jericho, the area across the canal from the moorings and also gone up into the city and got some bits from the indoor market, which has some amazing butcher shops and a fruit and veg stall where I bought some of the most amazing cherries, They were huge! French unfortunately but hopefully the British ones will be out soon.

We also went out for Sunday Lunch to the Red Lion where we've eaten in the past with Dave and Allison. Then back onto watching what I eat! We got some groceries and so we were ready to set off this morning.

Goodbye Oxford Canal for this year.

Someone had broken a bottle on the lock and John being the nice person he is, got the broom and swept it all into the side. He really is a sweetie, but don't tell him I said so!

This was one bird that didn't get away, a little egret apparently.

Proper geese! We've seen lots on this trip thankfully. Still lots of wretched Canada's unfortunately, but it's so nice to see our own, these had some young with them so grey-lag's are still hanging on in there,

Upstream on the Thames, there are LOTS of bends and quite a lot of shallow sections. This makes some of the corners quite interesting, and take into account the strong winds that are still around, it's lucky that there aren't many boats around. We've only seen three coming downstream and one has gone past upstream since we moored.

As you can see there is sunshine glistening on the water, you may also get some idea of the movement of the clouds with the wind. You can also get some idea of the state of the sides of the river, there are very few places to moor and to be honest not much to excite in the scenery. It's lovely, but not broken by anything of real interest. We both feel that we're glad we've done it but are unlikely to do it again.

We've gone up seven locks today, three of them have had volunteer lock-keepers and the rest John has done. At least they are not too difficult (says me who stays on the boat) but they don't LOOK hard!

We've heard and seen skylarks today, and John spotted a hole that he was sure was a kingfisher nest, but I still haven't seen one this trip so far.

We're moored on a lock next to a wildlife sanctuary called Chimney Meadows. This was the view across one of the cultivated fields we can walk around. The evening is definitely the best part of today, the wind has died down a bit, the clouds have cleared and you can see the beautiful blue sky.

From the bridge over the weir, you can see us moored ahead of the small cruiser. It's a nice sheltered mooring behind a lock on a pontoon.

Here's a closer shot. We're a bit long, the stern isn't against the pontoon, but otherwise it's a perfect little spot. We're about half way along to Keynsham so hopefully we'll get there tomorrow. Heaven knows where we'll find to moor but we shall worry about that tomorrow.