I forgot to say the other day that apparently the fishing season had just started and we were having to stay fairly close to the bank because of the rowing eights on our port side. There were several fishermen and they have this horrible habit of leaving their rods in until the very, very last moment. Well one didn't! The line got caught on the bow of the boat and he hung on to his rod for grim death and eventually the line broke. So sad. He was quite abusive. Tough.
Ruins in the Abbey grounds in Abingdon, seen on our walk with Paddy Saturday evening when it was marginally cooler.
Queen Victoria, again in the Abbey grounds.
One of the many pubs in Abingdon. Apparently (according to the pub blurb) the probable explanation of the name is that it shows a broad face to the river. Whatever reason it may be, I've not seen another one anywhere - but I'm ready to be corrected.
This is only here because our friends Carol and Ian have a boat (and a business) called Tickety Boo, and I thought they might like it.
Leaving Abingdon and the elegant bridge with the Church spire behind it is always a lovely sight I think. I dare say there may be an earlier picture of this, but unlikely to have been taken on such a bright sunny day. We once again started off before 9.00, this is becoming an unhealthy habit.
A rather elegant cormorant. John doesn't like them because they tend to eat a lot of fish, but then if he had his way, HE'd eat a lot of fish so there you are.....
We were hoping to moor above Days lock, where we've moored in the past, in fact on every journey we've done down here so far, but there was a sign that was illegible from the water and there were cattle with VERY large horns in the field next door with an open gate in between so we didn't stop there. I checked with the lock-keeper and he said the farmer was trying to dissuade people from mooring and he'd erected fences all across the meadows. He suggested we might be able to moor by the mouth of the River Thame which was not far below the lock. We kept a look out and saw a mooring that would be fine for a plastic pig but we weren't sure. John said we could try so we did. We got in nicely, with the front and centre ropes on pins and the back rope around a tree. This was quite exciting I thought, I'm not really into wild mooring, but this was lovely.
Now those of you who've been reading this blog for a while may remember when we were last on the Kennett and Avon, we had to go down to a lock past Bath and moor on a lock jetty. You may also remember that we ended up moving on because of the kids that were using the jetty as a launch pad to jump into the river. WELL..... guess what. within an hour or so, loads of youngsters were on the other side of the river mouth (about 10 foot away) swimming, shouting and generally enjoying themselves.
We stuck it out because we knew that we were unlikely to find anywhere else to moor on a Sunday as there were LOTS of boats out on the river. The main problem I had with the kids was the language. the F word was their word of choice and it punctuated every sentence.
In the heat of the day I cooked John a roast lamb dinner because it was Father's Day. I must have sweated off a good few pounds while he and Paddy sat at the back in the shade.
This was the mooring this morning once it was all quiet. I took Paddy into the nearest village which was Dorchester on Thames, and is one of the places used to film 'Midsomer Murder's' I spotted no bodies and managed to walk on my own across a field without being murdered so I reckon I did well. I was going to take John to buy him a beer but he was reluctant to leave the boat while the kids were there and they didn't leave until after I'd had my shower, so he went without.
Today we've only come a few miles along and are moored once again under willows, tied up with all three ropes to trees. I'm getting quite wild in my old age. It's lovely and cool and there's a place for Paddy to dip his toes. It's too deep for him to go in voluntarily, he doesn't like deeper than tummy height!
Looking worried that he's going in too deep! Yesterday on his walk he suddenly leapt down a bank and went into a very muddy side pool of the Thame. We had to get a bowl of water and rinse him off before he could get back on the boat, dirty little dog!
While we were travelling I tried to keep Paddy cool by draping a pillow case over him, John dubbed him Lawrence of Arabia's dog! Needless to say he pushed it off as soon as I stopped stroking him.
Here we are, moored up. We may stay here until Wednesday because there's a Slimming World meeting there that morning and moorings are hard to find. We're not in any hurry but there's unlikely to be a blog for a day or so because of lack of things to say and possible power to run the 'pooter.
By the way we now know the sound a red kite makes, it's like a dog whistle that just keeps going! We had a nest of them close to us yesterday. We have also seen another kingfisher and two green woodpeckers today. Last night on the back of the boat John had two kingfishers fly by, peeping as they went! He thought they were probably just fledged and out for a trial fly-past! We have more red kites here judging by the noises!
By the way, I'm not getting any messages apart from after the first day. I KNOW that people are reading it and it would be lovely to get some feedback.....please????
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