Onto the Thames, another very long day

 

Denise opening Drinkwater's Lift Lridge

Dukes Cut Lock

Heron in Dukes Cut

After yesterday's arduous cruise, today was planned to be relatively easy. We left our mooring near Kidlington at 9:10.  We quickly descended 2 locks went through a lift bridge and filled up with water.  The next stop was at Duke Cuts Junction where Dukes Cut leaves the Oxford Canal to join up with the Thames above Oxford.  Here there are 2 further locks, one on the Oxford and a then a small rise up onto the Thames level.

We turned left onto the Thames soon after midday and started looking for somewhere to moor.  We had been travelling for about 3 hours.  But all moorings on our map were filled with other boats.

We had no choice but to carry on through 2  large locks that once would have had full time lock keepers but they have been replaced by rudimentary instructions for boaters to operate the electrically powered locks themselves. We failed to understand these which frced us to use very heavy manual handles.

But still no free moorings, so we carried on through Oxford city.  We did find some barely adequate moorings  but having just moored up a local came out to tell us that mooring was not permitted so we pulled out our mooring spikes and carried on.

We then arrived at the large Osney Lock in the city centre which still has a permanent lock keeper.  She could not provide any moorings but did explain how to take advantage of the electric locks and also charged us £170 for a 2 week Thames license.

Moored near New Hinksey

Following the look-keepers advice we carried on intending to reach the next lock at Iffley where we were told moorings would 'be available.  But on the way we saw a very attractive mooring spot where we finally stopped at 16:10, some 4 hours later than planned. 

Daily travel details

Distance: 9.04 miles
Locks:7
Movable bridges: 1
Duration: 7 hours