Day 39 - Tuesday August 8th - Thrupp to Oxford
7 miles 6 furlongs, 6 locks, 4 hours
One of the guys I was chatting to in the pub last night said he would be
up around 6.30am and that he would open the lift bridge for me. Indeed
he was, so I set off then and went straight through the lift bridge. I
had wanted an early start anyway, as I wanted to stop on the visitor
moorings below Osney bridge. Roundham lock caused a fair amount of
trouble, as the gate wouldn't quite open fully. When I tried to leave
the lock Arun got wedged between the gate and the opposite wall.
Leaving her in forward, I was able to rock the boat by bracing my feet
against the handrails on the roof and pushing against the opposite lock
wall. Each time the boat changed angle it crept forward another foot.
Eventually the start of the rear swim got level with the gate and the
boat became unstuck. Still took about 15 minutes to get out of the lock
though. Drinkwater's lift bridge was negotiated in the same manner as
the one at Shipton yesterday, and arriving at Duke's lock with it full
and a boat just below the lock, their crew member opened it for me and
locked me through. Turned right into Duke's Cut at 8.50am, and arrived
on the Thames proper at King's lock at 9.15am. Through King's and
Godstow locks without incident, and tied up on the VMs at Osney at
10.30am. I'd wanted to be here early, as I was having problems with the
datacard, and thought I may need to go into Oxford to get a replacement.
It turned out that the SIM card had somehow got some corrupted
settings, but that there was a relatively easy way to resolve this using
your mobile phone. Followed the instructions and hey presto it burst
back into life. :-) Up to London by train in the late afternoon for
ringing and drinking, managing finally to get on the 0021 train back
from Paddington.
Weather - Sunny Intervals
Tomorrow's Forecast - Sunny Intervals
Terry Streeter
NB Arun - Oxford
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