Rain
This seems to be the theme of summer 2007, we had more of it today. There is nothing quite like standing in the open when its pouring with rain to make one question some of the choices made in life. :)
We stopped the other side of Abingdon last night, we had intended to stop in the town itself, but the only mooring we could find that was free had a fisherman sitting on it who seemed to think it was his right to sit there. Maybe he was right, who knows, but that and the roving gangs of chavs was enough for us to carry on. The lockeeper let us through even though he was about to go off duty and we found a safe place for the night on a little island by Swifts Ditch - this was the original course of the Thames before some monks altered the channel so it would flow by their Abbey in 1620 blah blah blah - lots of historical trivia on my map of the Thames....
Today was a day for boat spotting - I saw a tug style narrowboat that I went to look at in the midlands (it was too small for me) going downriver and this unusual combo of a pusher tug and narrowboat. The back of the narrowboat had been modified so that the tug had a secure location, looked very interesting (well, I thought so).
I spied narrowboat Bones on the way into Oxford center.
Bones is now writing for one of the monthly waterways magazines, I forget which one. I also saw another one of their columnists moored up in their very nice replica tug 'Nobby' - no pictures of that one as I was steering round a bend in heavy rain and strong river flows.
Speaking of which, I've had to accept that IRIS is not a particularly fast boat, even by narrowboat standards. The flow on the Thames is so strong at the moment that in places we were probably only doing 1-2 mph against the stream. In this picture it looks like the bow wave of a speedboat, but snails were passing me on the bank.
The flow through Onsey was amazing - I was almost taken out by the boat 'Weasel' (see a couple of posts below). It wasn't his fault, there was no way you could really control a boat going downstream. Hope its better next week when we're coming back.
The bridge an Onsey is very low, I'm glad I took the chimney off.
We stopped for lunch at the Trout pub, made famous by Inspector Morse - a TV show apparently. Like a pro, I fell in the river after slipping on a rock and twisted my knee - the same one I did a few weeks ago in Aldermaston. As I limped through the pub the waitresses smiled at me. Nothing like a war wound to make a chap seem more dashing, or perhaps they thought Mary was working for 'care in the community'. Either way lunch was good. Note my technique of tying up to handy bits of riverside clutter, such as fences.
Finally after more boating in the rain we arrived at Pinkhill lock for the night. Here is a picture of the crew (spiders not present) during a rare sunny spell.
This seems to be the theme of summer 2007, we had more of it today. There is nothing quite like standing in the open when its pouring with rain to make one question some of the choices made in life. :)
We stopped the other side of Abingdon last night, we had intended to stop in the town itself, but the only mooring we could find that was free had a fisherman sitting on it who seemed to think it was his right to sit there. Maybe he was right, who knows, but that and the roving gangs of chavs was enough for us to carry on. The lockeeper let us through even though he was about to go off duty and we found a safe place for the night on a little island by Swifts Ditch - this was the original course of the Thames before some monks altered the channel so it would flow by their Abbey in 1620 blah blah blah - lots of historical trivia on my map of the Thames....
Today was a day for boat spotting - I saw a tug style narrowboat that I went to look at in the midlands (it was too small for me) going downriver and this unusual combo of a pusher tug and narrowboat. The back of the narrowboat had been modified so that the tug had a secure location, looked very interesting (well, I thought so).
I spied narrowboat Bones on the way into Oxford center.
Bones is now writing for one of the monthly waterways magazines, I forget which one. I also saw another one of their columnists moored up in their very nice replica tug 'Nobby' - no pictures of that one as I was steering round a bend in heavy rain and strong river flows.
Speaking of which, I've had to accept that IRIS is not a particularly fast boat, even by narrowboat standards. The flow on the Thames is so strong at the moment that in places we were probably only doing 1-2 mph against the stream. In this picture it looks like the bow wave of a speedboat, but snails were passing me on the bank.
The flow through Onsey was amazing - I was almost taken out by the boat 'Weasel' (see a couple of posts below). It wasn't his fault, there was no way you could really control a boat going downstream. Hope its better next week when we're coming back.
The bridge an Onsey is very low, I'm glad I took the chimney off.
We stopped for lunch at the Trout pub, made famous by Inspector Morse - a TV show apparently. Like a pro, I fell in the river after slipping on a rock and twisted my knee - the same one I did a few weeks ago in Aldermaston. As I limped through the pub the waitresses smiled at me. Nothing like a war wound to make a chap seem more dashing, or perhaps they thought Mary was working for 'care in the community'. Either way lunch was good. Note my technique of tying up to handy bits of riverside clutter, such as fences.
Finally after more boating in the rain we arrived at Pinkhill lock for the night. Here is a picture of the crew (spiders not present) during a rare sunny spell.
posted by flatplane8 at 7:28 PM
1 comments
