Bridge 133

We spent yesterday and this morning touching up the paintwork. The boat normally next to us is in the dry dock, so we took advantage of the extra space to push JH across and work on the side that we cant usually get at. The canal was fairly busy this morning, we st off after

Fairport’s Cropredy Convention

For the last four days we have been staying in the marina. We arrived on Wednesday and Jan and Mike came on Thursday for the opening day. Each day we walk into the festival site, it’s about a mile and a half and we carry our chairs and enough cider for the day so it’s

Near Belchers Lift Bridge

An interesting day today! We set off early as the forecast was for another hot day. As we approached Duke’s cut lock we could see a small GRP cruiser in there. It was crewed by two young men (they looked like students). They appeared to be having problems, so we went up to take a

Above Swinford Bridge

A short day today. We decided to make the most of the day left on our Thames licence  by just chugging along slowly so we would get one more day on the river. Also the temperature was very hot so an early stop would be welcome. The Thames above Oxford is really beautiful and full

Near Tadpole Bridge

For the last few days we have been at Lechlade with our daughters, son in laws and most of our grandchildren. They were camping at Bridge House campsite. The time was spent chilling out, walking and playing pooh sticks at Inglesham Footbridge. They all left this afternoon so we set off downstream  for a few hours

Lechlade

We woke up to a clear, cloudless sky. Even though we had planned a lie in, we were away by 8:15 to take advantage of the lovely sunny weather. Another slow chug day. We first thought that we would stop short of Lechlade and then finish the journey tomorrow. But we couldn’t find a suitable

Near Shifford Lock

Only a short, slow chug today. We dont need to get to Lechlade until Friday so have plenty of time. Lots of bird wathing today. We saw several Red Kites, Buzzards, a Kestrel catching a vole, geese (Barnacle, Canada & Greylag) and two Little Egrets. We made a short stop for lunch at Newbridge, then

Above King’s Lock

We are now on the Thames. Even though we are heading for Lechlade we started off going downstream. Our usual early start saw us at Osney Lock before 8 o’clock, we also passed through Iffey Lock before the lock keeper was on duty. So is wasnt until Sandford that we had to pay our Thames

Bridge 239a

A longish day today 19 miles and 12 locks in about 9 hours, though it wasn’t onerous. We started out by filling up with diesel and getting a new gas bottle at Aynho Wharf . This used to be “Walker Services”, but they now trade as “Bridge 190” Quite a few boats about, mostly private