Rural Oxfordshire

The idea was to leave Thrupp early this morning and be the first to moor on the services block.  Unfortunately another couple had the same idea and their water tank was empty.  Actually they told us the water pump was sucking the rust of the bottom of the tank.

Thrupp is a lovely location, well maintained and where the mooring rules are enforced.  We have no problem with that.

Our mooring last night was very close to The Jolly Boatman pub.  Being a Wednesday night there wasn’t much of a crowd outside the pub.

It took almost an hour for the other boat to fill their water tank and by then a 3rd boat had arrived wanting water.  It took us less than 15 minutes to top up the tank, however Jan didn’t miss the opportunity to put on a load of washing while we waited.  This meant we left with a full tank.

Someone had dragged two bikes from the canal near Shipton Bridge and left them beside the dog poo bin for collection.

I have my doubts about the bikes being collected and suspect it’s more likely they will end up back in the canal!

The first lock of the day was Shipton Weir Lock.  It has a very strange shape being quite wide with only a small fall in water levels between full and empty.  When you exit the upstream side you’re out onto the River Cherwell. 

The reason for the wide lock becomes apparent when you realise the River Cherwell is the water source for the canal to Oxford.  If the lock was the conventional width, but with a fall of only 18 inches, then the canal might rapidly run out of water.  Making the lock wider ensures a conventional lock’s worth of water enters the canal each time it is used.

We were cruising along when I had to frantically reach for my camera to take a photo of this red van parked in the trees beside the canal.

After three hours of cruising we found ourselves a quiet rural mooring.  I went for a walk and didn’t see a building around for two kilometres.

During the walk I came upon this cast iron marker with the letters DIS on it.  My guess is it is a distance marker.

Then I came upon this stone marker which is so old any markings have eroded with the passing of time.

It’s interesting that sometimes you see things when cruising which are not seen when walking.  And when walking you see things not usually observed from the boat.  I would not have seen either of these markers from the boat.