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This weekend was my third annual cruise aboard the Walden III, the narrowboat owned by my friend TH. This has become a bit of a tradition for the second weekend of June: Two years ago, I joined him at the end of the Oxford Canal, just before it joins the Thames at the Isis lock. We cruised the Thames together for forty miles and fourteen locks, until we reached Reading, where I hopped off to catch a train back home. Last year, I rode up to Banbury to meet TH and the Walden III; we then spent the weekend cruising home on the Oxford Canal.
This year, the cruise was a mixture of the two previous years, incorporating both canal and river. After work on Friday night, I took a train up to Tackley, where I re-joined the crew of the Walden III. Tackley is most of the way from Banbury to Oxford, so we started out on Saturday by retracing our steps from the year before. Once arriving in Oxford, however, we entered the Thames at the upriver portion of the city, via the Duke's Cut. From there, we cruised upstream on the Thames to Eynsham. This was a new adventure for both TH and myself; neither of us had cruised the Thames upriver from Oxford before. I have to say, it made for some positively idyllic boating, as the scenery was gorgeous and the river is much less travelled once one gets above Oxford.[*]
We ended our cruising moored just past the Eynsham lock, at the foot of the Swinnford tollbridge. I have driven over this bridge -- paying the 5p toll -- many times, but I did not recognize it from the water. I always find it a bit amusing to re-orient when embarking onto familiar land via a water route. All my landmarks and reference points are out of kilter! Here is a sunset shot taken from the bridge as we made our way back from dinner at a local pub:
(as usual, click on the image for a larger version)
The red and blue boat on the right is the Walden III; slightly to the left, you can see the Eynsham lock.
It was an absolutely lovely cruise and I look forward to exploring the upriver portion of the Thames further. The plan for next year is to have me join TH and the Walden III at Oxford, as we did in 2009, and then cruise about thirty miles up the Thames to Inglesham, which is where the navigable portion of the river begins. If what I saw this weekend is indicative of the whole route, it should be a most spectacular journey, indeed!
[*] The Osney Bridge, which crosses the Thames about halfway through Oxford, has only seven and a half feet of headroom -- the lowest clearance of any bridge on the river. As a result, the enormous so-called "gin palaces" that head up from London can go no higher; hence the relative calm on the waters upriver of Oxford.
This year, the cruise was a mixture of the two previous years, incorporating both canal and river. After work on Friday night, I took a train up to Tackley, where I re-joined the crew of the Walden III. Tackley is most of the way from Banbury to Oxford, so we started out on Saturday by retracing our steps from the year before. Once arriving in Oxford, however, we entered the Thames at the upriver portion of the city, via the Duke's Cut. From there, we cruised upstream on the Thames to Eynsham. This was a new adventure for both TH and myself; neither of us had cruised the Thames upriver from Oxford before. I have to say, it made for some positively idyllic boating, as the scenery was gorgeous and the river is much less travelled once one gets above Oxford.[*]
We ended our cruising moored just past the Eynsham lock, at the foot of the Swinnford tollbridge. I have driven over this bridge -- paying the 5p toll -- many times, but I did not recognize it from the water. I always find it a bit amusing to re-orient when embarking onto familiar land via a water route. All my landmarks and reference points are out of kilter! Here is a sunset shot taken from the bridge as we made our way back from dinner at a local pub:
(as usual, click on the image for a larger version)
The red and blue boat on the right is the Walden III; slightly to the left, you can see the Eynsham lock.
It was an absolutely lovely cruise and I look forward to exploring the upriver portion of the Thames further. The plan for next year is to have me join TH and the Walden III at Oxford, as we did in 2009, and then cruise about thirty miles up the Thames to Inglesham, which is where the navigable portion of the river begins. If what I saw this weekend is indicative of the whole route, it should be a most spectacular journey, indeed!
[*] The Osney Bridge, which crosses the Thames about halfway through Oxford, has only seven and a half feet of headroom -- the lowest clearance of any bridge on the river. As a result, the enormous so-called "gin palaces" that head up from London can go no higher; hence the relative calm on the waters upriver of Oxford.
