A SOJOURN IN ABINGDON

Wednesday, 18th August
We went through Cleeve Lock and filed up with water, as we were nearly out.
There was rain on and off all day, and, unfortunately,
it was 'on' when we went through Benson Lock, and I got soaked.
Eventually we found a mooring just above Chillingford Bridge.
I hung the washing out and Trev got t.v. reception, so all was well.....
and then it rained!
So back in came the washing and it was hung on an airer.
The forecast for tomorrow is for more rain and unsettled weather.

Thursday, 19th August, Friday, 20th, Saturday, 21st
We set off at 9.45 for Abingdon and arrived at 12.45, just before the rain started again.
We came through some very remote countryside, and it was very flat.



This reminds me of a story--quite true--our American friend Leonard told me.
He came to the UK in 1990 as a Fulbright Scholar, on a year's teaching exchange.
During the year, all of the exchange teachers were invited to London,
to meet Princess Margaret, who, I think, was patron of the scheme.
All of the teachers were seated in groups
and the one on the end of each group was the one who would speak to HRH.
Leonard was delighted that it would be him,
and HRH stopped to ask him where he was teaching.
"In Leamington Spa, in the Midlands, ma'am," Leonard replied.
"Oh," said HRH. "It's awfully flat up there, isn't it?" Add the right accent, and it's quite funny.....
Leonard said he nearly told Princess Margaret that he was a great fan of her sister,
and always carried her picture in his pocket
whereupon he would have produced a five pound note!

At Abingdon, there were lots of moorings, all free and for up to five days.
There were some signs bidding welcome to boaters.
So we moored up and went in to town to shop.
The centre wasn't immediately inspiring,
but after a second visit it began to grow on us,
especially after we found Waitrose.
We'd shopped in Somerfield first, which was like a war zone.
The lad at the check out spoke a language we'd never heard before.
I think it might have been English, but a dialect with which we were quite unfamiliar!
He laid back in his swivel chair, dropped things on the floor
and generally seemed to think he was on the beach in Spain
rather than performing a paid job.
Oh dear, is this yet another sign of old age?

We stayed on the mooring for three nights,
not least because our postmen were coming to see us on Sunday,
and it was an easy place for them to find us.
On Saturday when we woke up, we found it was National Fishing week.
But, fortunately not on our bank, only on the opposite side.
All the boats from that side had had to move, to make way for the fishermen.
However, it doesn't seem as though fishing is a very popular sport in Abingdon.
There were three men and three boys.

This contrasted sharply with the events on our bank the next day
when jumps were put up, and all of Thelwell's little pony club girls
came out trotting on their perfect ponies.
This went on all day, the Volvos and horse boxes thronging the field.
There were a few stalls selling things, but I couldn't think of anything
I could do with a horse blanket or a nosebag,
so reluctantly had to keep my money in my pocket.

Also on Saturday, we heard a heck of a noise
and looked out of the hatch to see a large trip boat coming down the river
with about one hundred young people on it
The noise of the disco was unbelievable, and, incredibly, they moored up
and stayed about one hundred yards from us for an hour and a half.
The noise could be heard for about a quarter of a mile radius, and I can't believe that they are allowed to do it.
If it had been taking place in a private house,
I don't think it would have been long before Environmental Health
and/or the police would have arrived.
We wondered how often this happened and what the locals thought of it.
But, the good thing about our lifestyle is----
if we don't like it we can move on.
We aren't stuck with the neighbours from hell.

Our friends arrived at noon and we had lunch in a nice pub, The Crown & Thistle, in town.
Then it was back to the boat and we went for a cruise up the river and back.

After they left, we moored up above the lock in peace and quiet.

Monday, 23rd August
Today we set off for Oxford.
The weather started off fine.
The river was pretty, and we shared the locks with a couple on a narrowboat called Emalu.
They were New Zealanders, and came over here in the summer to travel in their narrowboat
returning in the autumn for the NZ summer.
I saw a punt. I'd never seen one before, only read about them.



As we approached Folly Bridge, the river narrowed and there was a sharp turn.
There were also large trip boats and punts for hire, all moored up.
And then a pedalo, about ten feet long, appeared in front of us
at right angles to our bows.
It had a family on board, and one of the children was "in charge".
They didn't do anything, except sit there quite unaware of the problem they were causing.
It appears that theses pedalo pushers thought that we would go
through the far arch of the bridge, which was too low, at completely the wrong angle,
and too shallow, with an obstacle on the other side
which would have prevented us from exiting the bridge any way!
What a predicament!
Trev managed to stop the boat (it takes at least half its length to stop it)
and then we started to drift in the current, towards the moored punts.
Also, the back was going towards the bank.
I leaned over the side and asked them if they could please move
from their current position at right angles to our bows
as we couldn't get through the bridge.
But I don't think they were English!
One of the men on the hire boat moored nearby asked them again to move
and at last they began to grasp the situation,
and they drifted gently out of the way.



We continued along the Thames, past Port Meadow, where the river is very wide,
and there were hundreds of Greylag Geese.
They're very pretty.

We went through Godstow Lock, where we just caught sight
of Jane on "Bramble" exiting the lock.
Our paths have crossed several times,
the last time was last year on the Shropshire Union at Nantwich.
Jane lives on board with her dog Wlllow and travels the canal system.
But sadly she'd gone before we had time to realise it was her.

We had a chat with the lock keeper.
They were husband and wife, both assistant lock keepers,
and were doing the job for the summer.
They were retired, and had bought an American style campervan
and would soon be setting off to spend the winter on the continent in warmer climes.

We went on through the lock and moored up just before Thames Bridge.
This is where the A34 crosses the Thames, and it's quite noisy,
which is a pity, as it's a very pretty spot,
with the ruined Godstow Abbey in the field right by us.
And there was Jane, so we got a chance to catch up
with what had happened to her over the last year.
She spent last winter on the Llangollen, which is where we hope to winter this year
so it was good to talk to her about it.
She said she had really enjoyed it.

It was a good job we had moored up, as the heavens opened
and it poured with heavy rain for about two hours.

Tuesday, 24th August
This morning Jane came along with a big bag of books and we did a book swop!
It's not easy to borrow books form a library as we go along.
Despite the fact that I'm a member of lots of libraries all over the country,
I joined to use the internet, not to borrow books,
as we're never anywhere long enough to read and return them.
So this was a real treat to have loads of new books to read.

We waited for the rain to stop, and we thought it had,
but then it started again.
After a few false starts, it looked promising, and we set off.
Oh dear, it started again, and, as we turned left for Eynsham, the heavens opened.
We've never seen rain like it. It was like a wall.
I went below and Trev stayed out under the brolly.
Now, if this had been the canal, we could have stopped more or less anywhere.
But we had to carry on, Trev getting absolutely soaked,
and visibility being almost nil.
Eventually the lock hoved in to view, and we moored up on the lock bollards.
I got soaked just tying us up.
The lock keeper, brave soul, dashed out to do the lock for us,
but we said we would moor up until it blew over.

It stopped eventually and we went on through the lock, looking for moorings.
There were lots marked in the guide, but none was apparent as we went along.
We passed Jane on Bramble again.
This time she was rather distracted as she'd lost her purse.
She'd walked in to Eynsham to get shopping, about 0.75 mile,
and when she got back to the boat, she realised she hadn't got her purse.
She was going to walk back to the shop to see if she had left it there.
I do hope she found it.

Eventually we found a mooring and moored up.
The weather still hadn't finished with us and flung its final bucketful of rain on us.



THIS PICTURE DOESN'T REALLY DO JUSTICE TO THE DELUGE!

We lit the fire, not because we were cold, but just so damp.
Everything felt damp, and we also had two loads of washing to get dry.

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