Monday 13 August 2012
Oxford Canal to Lechlade, River Thames

Anchor at the ready before we proceed onto the Thames!

The Olympics have finished, and the weather is back to showers again! but we have had 3 lovely days making our way upstream to Lechlade.

The flow on the Thames is very definitely there, you can see it, and certainly feel it as we swish round the sharp twists and turns - going under the low arched bridges requires concentration and a degree of good luck that another boat, and certainly not a narrow boat, appears from around a blind bend.At Newbridge, beside the Rose Revived with plenty of audience in the garden, we needed to push the throttle well forward to ensure we got through safely.

At Bablock Hythe we enjoyed some lovely real ale outside at the Ferry Inn and had a lovely mooring alongside their Thames field. The day was so perfect, some boaters used their safety ladders and plunged into the river for a swim - we didn't as we had seen some dead sheep floating down, half an hour earlier! Apparently, after the David Walliams swim, a lot of people are swimming the Thames, starting at this end - we met a group today of about 20, fortunately before they took the plunge!

Now and then, we have to operate the lock ourselves as the "Self Service" signs are up. Here is Bob doing his stuff at Rushey lock.

Ah Sunday Lunch! - we had found the perfect location, waterside pub, sunny day, lovely garden, good beer, despite a surly barman, BUT the food - eventually - a memorable plate of food for all the wrong reasons! How can some pubs survive, and yet so many others fail. We will not be dining in Radcot again, ever I think! 

Now  we are moored in Lechlade, with just a few other boaters, and shopped in the local town, but disaster - Waterways World is sold out!