Day six: Abingdon to Oxford and on to Thrupp

I slipped away from my mooring above Abingdon lock with as little sound as I could manage.  It was an early start (before 8.00am).  There was a long lock pound to Sandford lock, a good run of some 4 miles. This would mean mean I would arrive around the time the lockkeeper started his day and he would do all the locking work!

Sandford is a deep lock.  According to the lockkeeper almost as deep as Teddington at the start of the non-tidal Thames.

I had shorts on for the second day running but it was much colder and before too long the drizzle began and out came the wet weather gear (over the shorts).

The journey between Abingdon and Iffley seemed uninspiring.  

Perhaps it was my wanting to venture on to the Oxford canal and go through those narrow locks for the first time. The route seems to have more than its fair share of scrubland and electricity pylons. 

Sandford lock is pretty with a great pub alongside.  I remember it well from my last trip down this far (that must be 10 years or more!)

Just before Iffley there is a hire boat (large fibreglass cruiser) adrift.  The cutains are drawn.  Are the holidaymakers asleep.  I give a big hoot.  But no response.  Someone is going it get a shock when they wake up and release.  I did report it to the keeper at Iffley lock.

Suddenly you are in Oxford.  There seem to be boathouse after boathouse but not a soul rowing!  

There are plenty of those large Salter trip boats moored.  Some seem to be tied up at certain bridges and take up lots of the river and you cannot imagine how you might make it through the only remaining arch.

Then you come to Folly Bridge. Wow……… it is low and I even have to take down Hallmark’s chimney.  This bridge stops any large gin places going any further up the Thames!.

 Parts of the Thames at Oxford are like no other part of the river. There are lots of short sharp bends and you ‘go round the houses’. As you do this you seem to run along the backs of houses which face away from the elegant river.

We are getting near the start of the real adventure………..  Hallmark is taking the Sheepwash Channel to get into (or is in onto) the Oxford canal.. 

As it names sounds it is very low key. As with many canal junction is easy to miss.  There is no sign post at all! After a very sharp turn and under a typical canal horseshoe bridge you have to steer a really tricky course.  First you go under a very low bridge and then slip through a narrow gap left by the railway swing bridge that does not swing any more.  

You are then at a three way junction and I had no idea where to go.  I of course steered Hallmark away from the lock and had to back up and do a spin turn to face the first lock.

Once you have driven the boat into a lock a margin over seven foot wide  That will take practise!

I was amazed how easy it was to close the gates and work the sluices to fill and ‘drive’ out again!  Much, much easier than I expected.

However, the Oxford canal (well certainly in this stretch is very narrow and far too often one side there are lines and lines of moored residential boats.  No possibility of taking quick snapshots or even proper photos.

Then there is College Cruisers (the narrowboat hire company) and guess what Friday is changeover day and the ‘cut’ is well and truly full!  Eventually I get through backing up and drifting here there and everywhere.  Is this why people go into the Oxford via Dukes Cut?

 I had thought of stopping for the night around Wolvercote lock and go to The Plough.  But not a chance the few 24 hour moorings are already full at 12.30pm  So I decide to press onward.

Then I met my first swing bridge that is down and has to be raised.  I really do not think you can do swing bridges as a single hander!  However I puzzled it I either had my boat on the wrong side or I was on the wrong side.  I finally had a solution………….. just wait for the next boats and seek assistance.  It worked for the three bridges I encountered today!

If you were looking for Dukes Cut to get back to the Thames you would easily miss it. Why are there never signs when you need them?  Anyway no problem I was chugging up the Oxford towards Banbury and not taking that turn.

I kept chugging through Kidlington which seemed like a big housing estate on the one side of the canal.  There seemed to be endless bay windowed semis and a few bungalows

Thrupp hat a great place to moor.  A picture postcard row of small cottages alongside the canal.  Alongside the mooring there are cut half barrels planted up with summer bedding plants. Then there is a Greene King pub called The Boat Inn, which is just up stream from the Jolly Boatman.  Magic mooring!