Heading for Abingdon

 We are moored tonight nearly into Caversham and Reading so this was to have been the story of our travels down the Thames to here from Oxford. But unfortunately the software does not seem to be behaving itself so this only goes as far as Abingdon. Next instalment hopefully soon. The weather has been glorious, if a bit hotter than we would wish. Living in a steel box (albeit an insulated steel box) when the temperature outside is above 30 degrees each day gets a bit wearing. But the big advantage of cruising the Thames is having a swim every afternoon to cool down.

This is Osney Bridge coming through Oxford on Thursday (6th August). This low bridge is the reason that there are no huge cruisers on the Thames above this point.

Around Folly Island in Oxford you can pass either side. We had never been towards the right of the island before so here we are. It is much narrower than the main route and passes under a low arch of Folly Bridge. You then have to dodge the Salters Steamers that you can just see through the arch. The steamers are not running at the moment because of Covid.

Thursday evening we moored just before Sandford Lock. If you look closely at the sign on the post you might notice that it says "Private, No Mooring". The lock keeper at Osney Lock had told us to ignore this so we did and had no problems.

On Friday morning we shared Sandford Lock with another narrowboat called Leonora which seemed appropriate as we are Leo. At 8 foot 10 inches,Sandford is the deepest lock on the river above Teddington Lock.

We liked this sign by the lock at Abingdon. There was a second sign that "on leaving the lock make sure you pass to the left of the red floaty things". More or that in a minute.

So here is what happens when you pass the wrong side of the 'red floaty things' otherwise known as buoys. The cruiser in the picture has done just that and is rather firmly aground. We were moored just opposite with a grandstand view. First another cruiser tried to pull it off but failed. The narrowboat in the picture was more persistent and, with some expert maneuvering, succeeded. We could not help because we were facing the wrong way - the cruiser needed to be pulled off backwards.

This gives a better idea of how deep it is on the other side of the red buoys. These three swam across the navigable channel and then went paddling.