Oxford

Tuesday 30^th August; Aristotle to Jericho

No need for an early start today, as we won’t be moving till we see the first boats leaving Oxford.  I popped over the bridge to get a newspaper from the deli, but although it is still there, selling the same sort of stuff plus ice-cream with ‘Persian flavours’, it no longer sells papers.  At about 10 we cruised down to Jericho.  We had seen a couple of College Cruiser hire boats going back to base yesterday, so we were not surprised to see hire boats being moved about, which made progress very slow indeed. There was only one space to moor, so we went down Isis lock and turned before coming back to nab it.

You must still register with the NRA!

I went up to the Tesco in town for a few things while Dave cleaned through the boat as we have visitors today.  My sister and brother-in-law walked across Port Meadow from Wolvercote (where they left the car), and down the towpath from Walton Well bridge.  We had a cup of tea and discussed the progress of the Jericho Wharf development – or rather, total lack of it.  The hoardings have been up for so long that even the graffiti is fading.

And nature is taking over at one end.

How long before the fabric comes loose and wraps itself around someone’s propeller?

We walked back across Port Meadow and crossed the Thames to go up the Thames Path for a while and have our picnic.  Although the weather is still dry, there has been more cloud over the last couple of days, and although the sun is very hot when it’s out, the wind is beginning to get cooler.  Today, it was blowing strongly across Port Meadow, so I was glad of long trousers and a jumper.  Just one cruiser went by, but still plenty to see as the swans and geese were pottering about over the way, with a little egret too.  Then this stately family sailed by.

All in a line

We returned to Bonjour for tea and cake.  My sister noted we were moored opposite ‘Canal Reach’ (in real life Combe Road), where deaths occurred in the Morse novel ‘The Dead of Jericho’.  Not at all by coincidence, I am reading that very book, which we got from the shelves at the Sutton Cheney facilities on the Ashby and kept it on the boat for our first Oxford trip.

‘Canal Reach’

The cottage on the left is where a death occurs, and if the pesky hire boat wasn’t in the way you could see the wall which Morse climbs over in the story.  (I noticed it while the hire boats were being moved about).  The cottage opposite, which is also significant, is obscured by the containers in the boatyard.  The ‘Printer’s Devil’ pub (actually The Old Bookbinders’ Arms) is visible from a little way along the canal.  We have enjoyed meals there in the past.

1 mile, 2 locks, now pointing the other way