![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
I love you
xxxxxxxxxxxx
From:
no subject
Perhaps I had best do that now, before heading back to the bedroom...
You, my beloved Jess, are sweet and wonderful and beautiful and clever and sexy. And I love you very, very much!!!
Sweet dreams, Dearest. I will be thinking of you as I drift back off to sleep...
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From:
no subject
May I recommend the Birmingham Ring some time? It really gives an impression of what the industrial canal complex was all about- not pretty in some ways, but endlessly fascinating!
From:
no subject
Also, thank you for the recommendation! I will pass it along to TH, as he is the owner of the Walden III and it is his home. We already have next year's journey planned, but perhaps this could be the adventure for 2013!
From:
no subject
There are some mental gymnastics (of a sort I enjoy) involved when you try to align what you're seeing from the water with your land-based internal map of the city :-D
From:
no subject
*nods vigorously* Yes, that is exactly what I was trying to convey! I knew from the river map that we were passing the Eynsham lock and mooring near a toll bridge. Even so, everything looked so different from that vantage that it never occurred to me that the bridge in question was a rather familiar one!
I've not yet taken a Circle Line cruise. I generally take visitors on the Staten Island Ferry to show them the city from the water.
From:
no subject
And in December, I suspect that
From:
no subject
I hope your trip was more comfortable than that of the gents in 3 Men In A Boat, or To Say Nothing Of The Dog.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
I've done similar kinds of mental gymnastics and reorienting one's inner map when I've taken the train from East Lansing to Chicago.
From:
no subject