As far as you can in an hour!

Monday 2nd May

Gosh, Ian had some difficulty in removing the pins this morning. Hammered in so well on Saturday, they absolutely refused to come out the conventional way. Brute force (and ignorance?), was first tried by pulling on the ropes, but it took the Rondall bank anchor to eventually free them from their grip.

It took a tad under 10 minutes to reach Pinkhill Lock. I suppose if I hadn't dragged my heels I would have been there sooner, but both of us really wasn't looking forward to leaving the Thames, so the longer we could stay on this river the better.

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Pulled onto the landing pontoon, Ian got ready to set the lock, (it was self-service) when the bottom gates opened. Into the waiting lock came a wide beam, the first seen on the move since arriving a week ago. Chatting as one does, the pair was heading for Lechlade. They had heard about those young beasts eating ropes etc and were slightly unsure what to do. The boat was to be left up there for a week. I wouldn't want to be them on their return! Eaten ropes, damaged paintwork, cratch cover nibbled and possibly no boat to come back to! Anyway, I mentioned those other wide beams with the electric fence. They may be able to come sort of agreement. Oh, to be a fly on the wall to see what happens!😉

 Still a lot of boats in at the Anglo Welsh yard, probably unsurprising because of the price of diesel at the moment. Chatting to one of the lockkeepers a while ago he mentioned that one of the big cruiser hire companies put their price up to well over £2000 a week. That wasn't all...they were also charging for diesel by the hour!!! As the lockie said, plenty of speeding tickets will no doubt be handed out to those hirers trying to get as far as they can in one hour.

 

Under Eynsham bridge and we suddenly came across a narrow boat mid-stream. Circling his arm over his head, we rightfully assumed he was winding. Then he reversed. Ah, now all became clear, to the water point he went. Well, good luck with that, I thought.

 

The last lock was Eynsham, below was the elsan and rubbish point and also a good view of one of the massive Thames weirs.

 Duke's cut was several miles from this point. We decided to stop for lunch, and then thought, sod it, let's stay until the morning. So FS was secured more securely, a spot of gardening was done because ants were finding their way into the boat, and we settled down for an afternoon of Netflix. I can recommend 'Rescued by Ruby', a really lovely doggie story.

And wildlife, a Buzzard being mobbed by a Rook

Kestrel