Back on the cut

We'd heard that Dukes Lock was closed for repairs, so when we left Oxford yesterday we went through Isis Lock and up the Oxford Canal. What a horrible stretch of canal! It's full of residential "Agenda 21" moorings with lots of scruffy, almost derelict boats that are a disgrace. That's not just me being snobby either, as a couple of local walkers commented on how bad they were as we went past. As it happens, we could have come back the picturesque way through Godstow as the lock was open when we got there. Never mind, we'll know for next time and there definitely will be a next time. We've enjoyed the Thames so much that we're getting a gold licence for next year and hopefully coming back for the whole summer.

We moored for the night on a 48hr visitor mooring at the junction and hadn't been there long when we had our pins pulled out by a passing speed boat. The cheeky sod had a sign on the back of his boat asking boats to PASS ON TICK-OVER...........if only he did that himself!

After a cloudy and cool weekend it's been hot and sunny again today, perfect cruising weather with the added bonus that when we moored up this afternoon I could get the whirly-gig out and dry all the washing that I'd done en-route.

A friend of mine is coming to visit tomorrow so we took Chico for a walk into Tackley village to check out the route from the station back to our mooring below Pigeons Lock. It's just over a mile and is very well signposted for the Oxford Canal walk.

Tackley village is lovely

although you'd need to be vertically challenged to live in some of the cottages.

The railway runs right through the village and the noise from the trains is horrendous so, as pretty as it is, I wouldn't want to live there.