TRIP REPORTS

AUTUMN CRUISING 2006

The Upper Thames to Birmingham

Part 2 — Eynsham to Thrupp

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We resume the story with Wendy recovering from an arm injury, on the boat at Eynsham with the cats and me in London doing some work at the museum and hoping to recruit an extra crew member to help while Wendy was hors de combat.

I rang to say that Tony Haynes had agreed to come and crew with us for a few days. Wendy filled the water tank, and later went to the John Radcliffe Hospital, where they decided that her fingers were not in fact broken, but said that the soft-tissue damage would take a long time to get better "at your age". I returned in the evening, closely followed by Tony. The two of us ate in The Talbot.

Radcot

Before starting, Wendy did a little shopping in Eynsham while I was washing up from breakfast. David and Jan King stopped next to us to take on water. Tony topped up our water tank then went to meet Wendy and carry the shopping. We were under way at 10:00 in very pleasant autumn sunshine. We stopped at Tadpole bridge and Tony & I went to The Trout for beer & baguettes. The afternoon run brought us to Kelmscot at 17:33. The built-up moorings were full, so we moored just round the bend with some other boats, Dreamcatcher (same name as Tony's boat) and Rainbow. They were having an impromptu concert, which Tony joined in, but declined their invitation to go down the pub. After the pub, by which time we were all in bed, they started singing again, fortunately not for too long.

We woke to the sound of pouring rain, so weren't motivated for an early start. After a late breakfast the weather had cleared up and we set off at 11:33. On our way through St John's lock we had a brief chat with Peter and Liz Payne. Peter's the lock-keeper and Liz an IWA associate of mine. We winded by the Roundhouse at Inglesham and spent some time getting into the right position to take some photos. The roundhouse is now much more visible that it used to be, as much of the vegetation surrounding it has been cleared. By now the weather had turned nice again. We moored for a while just below Ha'penny Bridge in Lechlade for a little shopping in the town, then went on to the tail of St John's lock where we used the pump-out machine.

Our evening mooring was opposite The Swan at Radcot bridge, where we arrived at 16:58. Tony invited us to dinner at The Swan, but Wendy felt too groggy with the pain of her arm to accept. So Tony & I enjoyed the meal without her.

We had a pleasant breakfast in the pub before setting off at 09:45. The day's weather was a mixture of sunny spells and cloudy ones, with a few very black-looking thunder storms that all managed to miss us. Tony (who is a qualified boatmaster) gave us both some useful tips to improve our steering - we were both using habits learned on much smaller boats that aren't as good on the present size boat. At Northmoor lock the lock-keeper was on his lunch-break, so I wandered off to photograph the paddle-and-rymer weir, before Tony helped an upstream boat lock through, then locked us down. We stopped again at Oxford Cruisers (below Pinkhill Lock) for diesel and gas, and at the head of Eynsham lock to take on water.

Above King's lock we turned off the main river into the weir stream, whence we continued via Wolvercote Mill Stream and Duke's Cut onto the Oxford Canal. Tony worked out that the lock on the Cut was his first narrow lock for six years. At 18:32 we tied up at the Jolly Boatman at Thrupp. Tony & I had a couple of rather expensive pints each in the pub before dinner on board.

The cats went walkabout, so once we'd become resigned to the likelihood of their not returning until evening, Wendy & Tony pulled the boat a bit forward onto the 14-day moorings while I was busy catching up on a big back-log of e-mails from the days when we didn't have a decent connection. Then we had a barbecue lunch before first Tony headed off home and then I headed for London for Canalway Cavalcade Committee and a few more days at the Museum. Wendy's arm was beginning to show some signs of improvement.