Heading South to Oxford with Visitors

We are currently moored in Thrupp, arriving back here late this morning after an early start from Oxford.

On Sunday we picked up our family visitors from the airport and brought them over to our mooring in Banbury. They enjoyed the closeness of the moorings to the shopping centre and added quite a bit of extra ballast to the boat.

While we had the rental car for another day we headed into Birmingham, to Cadbury World at Bournville.

The shopping and chocolate over we headed off to Lower Heyford. We put our visitors to work, one on the tiller the other working the locks.

We finished off a long day with drinks and dinner at The Bell Inn. Our next day was a lot shorter with us arriving in Thrupp just after lunch. Our mooring this time three metres from the back door of The Jolly Boatman Inn where we spent the afternoon.

It was great having an extra hand on the locks and lift bridges as we made our way into Oxford, only a three hour trip from Thrupp. Shopping was again on the agenda as well as taking in a few of the sights of Oxford which centred mainly around the university. We were here early last year and they were talking about an upgrade to the moorings at Oxford. It seems they may be getting underway and if it comes to fruition then it will be great.

 

 The last day of our mooring in Oxford we took our visitors to London by train and gave them a whirlwind sightseeing tour before putting them on a train to Heathrow.

 

Buckingham Palace

Victoria Memorial

Big Ben

Heading out of Oxford this morning I thought how nice it would be to have that proposed new winding hole rather than having to go down Isis Lock to wind in the Thames then back up through Isis Lock to head back north. While cruising down to Oxford I noted how overgrown the off-side (particularly) of the canal was. Many of the boats coming towards me were very reluctant to move over into the trees, for good reason. The plan worked well and it was a good hour before we met our first boat. I did spot this interesting steering contraption on the back of this boat. I get the impression from the condition of the boat that the steering contraption doesn't get too much of a workout.

I finished the day washing and polishing  one side of Serafina, the Oxford Canal is rather overgrown in several places.