Kidlington

The weather forecast for today was dire. It spoke of high winds and heavy rain from 11 o’clock onwards. So we decided to make an early start and were on the way by 6:45. The river was cloaked in mist, giving a magical, ethereal quality to everything. It was difficult at times to see where the actual channel went.

After a while the sun rose and started to burn off the mist.

Normally on the Thames there are lock keepers at each lock, but at that early hour they were, quite sensibly, in their beds. So we had to operate the locks ourselves. At the first lock we encountered a group of parents. They had arrived to help their schoolboy sons through, who were on a sposored row from Oxford to Sonning.
The really bad weather didn’t materialise. It got quite windy and we did have some rain, but not a lot. We went the long way round onto the Oxford canal, via Duke’s Cut and moored up for lunch above Kidlington green lock and decided to stay here for the night.

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