To Thrupp

Sunday 28^th August; Dashwood Lock to Thrupp

This is a lovely quiet overnight mooring, but with no internet signal.   We had hoped to leave early enough to stand a fighting chance of getting our Sunday newspaper of choice but were foiled on 2 counts. Firstly, a delay of nearly an hour before we could set off.  A boat appeared behind us before we had moved up to the lock landing, and after waiting for them to turn the lock, wait for an approaching boat to arrive and come up, it was 9  before we were going down.  Time to admire Dave’s handiwork from last night, prepping and painting below the gunwale.  The photo also shows where a previous toucher-upper had not thought to use masking tape.

Another little job to be done

There was a sunken hazard at Northbrook lock which must have struck fear into the hearts of novice narrowboaters.

We cruised past Jane’s Enchanted Tea Garden but sadly it seems to have bitten the dust at some point in the last few years.  We wanted to go up to the shop at Kirtlington for the paper and some milk, but were unable to moor at the popular quarry offside mooring, where you can walk up through the woods.  Instead we moored below Pigeon’s lock and walked up to the village from there.  It was a long, hot walk uphill.  Meg did her best to go into the woods at various points, but we’ll try and do that on our way back up the canal.  We found the post office/shop but it was closed.  Closed on Sunday, or closed for good?  Difficult to tell, and opinions among other boaters varied, but we discovered on our way back several days later that we should have walked across the fields to Tackley village shop – in the opposite direction!  But no newspaper for us, either yesterday or today.  When we got back to the boat we put the kettle on and got under way at once.  It was very slow going through Enslow – we had to wait a while at the wharf while a boat manoeuvred to breast up by another.  While he was hithering and thithering we could see a small wooden launch hovering about close behind him, and as soon as his bow rope was taken up by someone on the other boat they immediately started trying to get past on his towpath side, right where we had started aiming for.  They were all over the place and we completely lost sight of them so I shot up the front to see what on earth they were doing and warn them to get out of the way – they were aiming to come through the 6-foot gap between two narrowboats, and though Dave was in reverse by now we were still moving!  I shouted and pointed to show him which side they were on so he could take avoiding acton, and belatedly they realised we were rather bigger than them and pulled themselves into a tiny gap.  They just waved and laughed - I don’t think they had a clue they would have been as an eggshell under a boot.

Clueless

We got ourselves past the wharf eventually and made our way round the bend past the Rock of Gibraltar, which is looking rather disconsolate and unloved.  I hope it will open again. 

Many years ago we moored there overnight.  It was run by a Greek man and we had an excellent proper home-made Greek moussaka, well worth the 5am wake-up call next morning from the lorry depot opposite!  There was a lot going on at Baker’s Lock – a work-boat taking up part of the lock moorings, a boat coming up, two waiting to go down and a whole swarm of orange buoyancy aids.

We waited our turn and then had no work to do apart from raising and lowering paddles.  The young people, all seemingly from abroad, were on a day out from attending a residential Computer Science course run by a private company somewhere in the Blenheim Palace area.  They were enjoying a trip in Indian canoes, and had stopped for lunch, but were excited to push the gates, never having seen an English canal system before.  We had lunch on the mooring between the lock and Horse Bridge where the river comes in, then enjoyed a brief blast down the river.

Looking back at Horse Bridge

There is less of a view of the nearby radio telescope from the lock as the trees are in full leaf, but we had a good view from the river.  A little further along we saw two discharge pipes trickling something into the river.  There has been no rain … ‘Hope it’s not sewage’, said Dave.   

Then it was Shipton Weir lock, and on to the lift bridge which was so twisted last time we were here that it could have been a roller-coaster track-bed.  We had a stoppage notice a while ago that the footpath was closed as the bridge was unsafe, but now there is a new bridge. 

Brand new

The new bridge looks perfectly stout and safe, but so far there has not been a notice to say it is open again.

Looked ok to us, but at least I didn't need to open it!

Thrupp of course was busy.  We waited for a hire boat to finish on the water point, then moved onto it ourselves.  I knew there was glass recycling here, but now there is a big recycling bin for the rest, which is good news.  We added a couple of paperbacks to the bookshelf, and took three, leaving a donation as requested.  As the water filled I had walked down the moorings and seen a space.  Although at least two boats had gone through the bridge before us, after we had done so (only 2 cars held up) it was still vacant, so we pulled in.  We walked back to Annie’s Tea Room for an ice cream, 

Don't tease!

and in the evening had a meal in the Boat.  Anyone who has been there cannot fail to be aware that an episode of Morse was filmed here, and the restaurant (the Morse Room) has the evidence.

They look so young ....

The meal was nothing special (scampi and chips, and a vegan Wellington with veg which was probably microwaved), but it wasn’t bad and we enjoyed our beer. £4 a pint, and the meal was reasonable too.

5½ miles, 5 locks, lift bridge.