Now moored on the Thames

 This is a 3 day blog since we have yet again been suffering from internet problems. "No Service" on Tuesday and repeated dropouts on Wednesday. We have been using our current configuration of a wifi router with a roof aerial for some years and never had these difficulties before.

Tuesday 8th September

Liftbridge and M40

Octagonal Ayno Lock

Typical Oxford Canal scene

However life goes on....Tuesday was again a pleasant day with attractive though very isolated countryside with locks every mile or so.  Just above Ayno Lock the River Cherwell flows across the canal.  The lock is most unusual being of octagonal shape.  The reason I believe is to bring as much of the Cherwell water as possible into the canal as possible a controlled way.

Somerton  Deep Lock

We were making good progress until we reached Somerton Deep Lock ("deep" being 12 foot ) where there were 3 boats waiting to descend and more waiting to ascend.  The lock had been unusable for 3 hours as the bottom gate would not close, CRT had been called and their staff had just arrived.  They had brought their 20 foot long rake and were trying to find the obstruction. Fortunately they found a lump of wood pretty quickly and were able to fish it out with the rake. About an hour later we were able to follow the boats ahead of us in the queue down the lock and we moored out in the middle of nowhere at 4pm - a long day.

9.25 miles 5 locks 4 hours 45 minutes travelling.

Wednesday 9th September - Thrupp

Another Oxford Canal Scene

Octagonal Shipton Weir Lock

Densie moored at Thrupp

Wednesday 9th September

Again a similar day to the 8th.  We popped into a boatyard to empty our waste tank and then carried on down the canal.  After descending the hills for 2-3days with locks every mile or so we finally reached the Cherwell Valley where the canal is lined by tall trees which block out much of the daylight and the locks are more widely spaced and not so deep. At times the waterway is very narrow because of reeds on both sides and also because of the large numbers of moored boats.  Finally the canal actually joined the river for a mile.  After separating the canal again descends another octagonal lock before entering the canalside village of Thrupp were we moored for the night.

9.76 iles 7 locks 2 liftbridges 6 hours 20 minutes travelling

Thursday 10th Sepember

The past 3 days have all fnished well into the afternoon and we are getting tired.  SO we weplanning for somethng shorter today. However...

On the Thames below Oxford

Moored above Iffley Lock

Iffley Lock

This morning we left Thrup at 9:30 and stopped soon afterwards to fill up with water.  We reached the outskirts of Oxford about 3 miles later and from then on it was a long slow journey past large numbers of moored boats.  On this section we met our firstworking  manual liftbridges like the white ones shown in previous photos. 

Eventually we arrived at the Sheepwash Channel which connects the Oxford Canal with the Thames.    We soon reached our first large Thames lock , Osney Lock, where we dicovered that there was no lock keeper. Like many Thames locks it has been converted to boater operation with a pushbutton control panel and detailed instructions.  After some minutes studying these we think we worked out what to do.  Fortunately at that moment a cruiser turned up whose crew knew exactly how to operate the lock and we were able to stay on Densie whilst they did the work.

Leaving Osney Lock we carried on downstream and ust before the next lock we found some moorings where we have stopped for the night.

6 locks 9.17 miles 2 liftbridges 5 hours 40 minutes cruising