Thursday
13th October, 2011
We started early, continuing down the Oxford Canal
to Duke’s Cut where we joined the River Thames. Scary! At King’s Lock, we bought
the obligatory 21 day EA (Environmental Agency) licence for the Thames (£120). Just past Godstow Lock we stopped for
breakfast, then continued down to Sandford Lock where we had lunch. Marion had been
nervous about the lock-keepers on the Thames,
imagining them all to be fierce and grumpy; in fact they were all charming,
very friendly and a veritable fount of knowledge.
Just before Abingdon, we rang Penny and Harry,
our friends whom we had met some three years before at a chance meeting at the
“Beetle and Wedge” at Moulsford; they
had ended up giving us a lift back to Goring on the narrowboat they were using
that day (the much-loved “Queen of Hearts”). We moored up just south of Abingdon Bridge where Penny and Harry joined us
for tea. They both came from work; Harry arrived on his bicycle and Penny
arrived on foot, looking very smart in her business dress! They were then kind enough to take us into
Abingdon to show us where to find Waitrose so that we could do some shopping
there. The boat that they use, “Queen of Hearts” was moored diagonally opposite
(see right-hand photo below)
.
After we left them, we sailed down to
Culham Lock, where we moored just before the lock for the night. Robin noticed some water in the bilge (enough
to spill over the bilge pump recess).
16
Miles and 7 locks – 6.5 hours
Total 21 miles and 11 locks
– 9.5 hours
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