Continuing our travels.

Oxford to Newbury

Well its been 14 days since I tickled the keyboard on the laptop. On leaving the Jolly Boatman pub we have had a slow movement to Oxford. We left the Boatman disappointed (sad face imoji if I had one) the Abbott Ale had gone off...so had to make do with something else..Dohh!! such is life.

A slow meander into the next major town which was Oxford. As many people know I spent a lot of time throwing 44 ton HGV’s about for a living, on and off. I have travelled to most parts of the UK via the wonderful road system we have. The times I would cross over the canal system on the various motorways with a longing eye, watching the water going under the bridge, the occasional narrow boat or working boat passing on its way to...who knows where. I must admit I was envious. I don't do envy normally, but the freedom used to call me even then. I never dreamed a retirement dream would come to fruition.

Mind you I had the reverse happen the other day ..saw a driver climbing into his cab.. something I'll never do again..one last time would be good, King of the Road..

Approaching Oxford we were passing a park with a 48 hour mooring area so we stopped and made use of it. Lovely area, lots of kids laughing and enjoying the warm sun. There was a pub just over the road and we had a chance to sample the local brew. Very good but very expensive, compared to home.

Mooring, Infinity in distance

Outside pub....

After checking the map it transpired we were only a short walk into the city centre, as the dogs don’t do traffic, well Jake that is. He has always lived in the country and is not used to cars. He flips and gets very distressed, so we left them at home to guard the boat.

It was a 20 minute walk approx into the old area of Oxford. I wanted to have a look at a hotel I held interviews at when I was a regional sales manager for a national company.

The Randolph Hotel as seen on the TV in Morse and other programs.

Approaching the river bridge, I happened to look down into the river and there was a lady's head in the water ??...what was going on??

I shouted to see if she was OK ..silly question on reflection.. she ignored first time I asked if she wanted help ?? to which she shook her head.

Then I realised what she was up to as she took her glasses of rolled over on to her face.

I believe she was building up the courage to take her own life.

She blew all the air out of her lungs, we were joined by a young lad, by then.

I phoned 999 ...police... fire... and ambulance please. The lad was about to dive in and help her but, I told him not too, you don’t know what is under the water.

While on holiday once we say a man drowned. But another man who went in to help him perished as well. Shopping trolleys weeds or other thing that can incapacitate you.

Luckily enough the lady didn’t breath in under water.

Police arrived first and did a sterling job, They found her name from a handbag on the side seat, with the help of a life belt they managed to persuade her to come to the bank and taken to the awaiting ambulance. The local paper next day said she was physically OK. I just wonder for her mental condition. Hope she gets the help she needed. 

Services arrived and blocked off main road

A wander through the old part of the city..a costa coffee and look about ..sadly my energies gauge clock up empty so a taxi ride back to the boat and an afternoon kip and all was well again.

Leaving Oxford we were soon going to have a completely different environment to cope with. The wonderful River Thames. To say we were both a bit apprehensive for the first few hours was an understatement. The canals are approximately 30 ft wide and about 4 foot deep. The river is a bit different..ten times wider and how deep ?? don’t know.

Also a current. Not fast moving, but enough to let you know its there.

Old Infinity is quite happy with her engine running at usual 2000 revs per minute. Checking with sat nav that's about 3 mph.

On the river...it felt as if we had stopped ..

Up to 2300 and we were off..up to ...wow...5mph !! also into the wind.

Dropping down though Abingdon on Thames, we had a few days and did a bit of shopping and tested a local pub. We are members of a few boaters sites on face-book. ‘Narrowboat Users Group’, ‘Canal Market Place’. We made a few friends on there.. cyber and real.

Another site we are on is Canal Photography. Jenny was looking thorough the pages for that day...believe it or not ...there was a photo of Infinity on the today's pictures moored where we were, taken from the other side of the river. Small world. He was a local photographer out for his daily shoot. 

He has his uses ….

One thing that we couldn't get over was the amount of wartime pill boxes that we could see..many hidden under the hedges and tree but some out in the open. One is quite prominent on a small island along with an, well what looked like an anti aircraft placement behind it, Some were on private land and had been incorporated into peoples gardens.

I did suggest to Jenny we might do some magnet fishing to try out our new magnet, we thought better of it.. knowing our luck we would find a ww 2 Uxb and be stuck here for hours.

How some people are expected to live in some conditions as we cruise past their residences, and in the 21st century is unbelievable.

Some of the house appear to be very big...at least 5 or 6 bedrooms !! Some have huge gardens going down to the riverside. Many had gardeners working on highly manicured stripey lawns, trees and flowers everywhere.

There were quite a few who had big boathouses with sea going cruisers in them !!…

One has a thatched roof with a big balcony on it and a BBQ area. A few had huge green houses with swimming pools in them.

Personally I don't think is fair expecting people to live like this. .they must be worried sick wondering where the next fifty grand is coming from to pay for it all. 

Before we turned on to the Kennet and Avon canal we were happily chugging along at 5 mph and somebody, well a few people, wanted to go faster ...infact they over took us..on the wrong side they weren't even looking where they were going !! 6 of them in a racing boat ...going like the clappers !!

We had sailed into a boat race...a mixed one for all comers by the look of it, some single handed and all the way to way to a full complement. Both male and female. I've never seen so many lovely young ladies with wet tee shirts in one place !!

Made an old man very happy..I gave them a lovely smile ..only realised I didn't have my dentures in...it must have looked more like a demented goofy grin ..Oh well that's life. 

We pulled into Woolhampton and found a good mooring place, we were getting low on supplies and there was a pub here. .surprise surprise I hear you say..no its NOT one long pub crawl.

We are finding it hard work collecting supplies from the local supermarkets if they are not right on the canal side so an Ocado delivery was ordered.

I also contacted an old friend who lives in the area..we met in 1965 when we were apprentices in the motor trade. Bob Smith.. he and his wife came over from Frimley for the evening and we had a lovely meal and a catch up..it was four years since we had met, but its funny with some friends, you might not have been together for many years but the minute you sit down the years disappear.

Ocado delivered ...when Jenny checked it off there was a box missing ..my Guinness..two bottles of red wine and peanuts ..I can’t fault the customer service, one hassle free phone call sorted in 5 mins. Plus a £5.00 credit note added to our account for any inconvenience caused.

Next morning were off again, just about to have breakfast and another boat pulled in in front of us. Jenny made a comment as they came in ..they were just stopping for breakfast. We finished ours and started the engine up the skipper came up and asked if we could link up and travel together. That’s what we have been looking for !!...yippee !!

Doing the big double locks is hard work on your own. Allan and Annie are about our age and appear to have the same sense of humour. Yesterday was a good day half the work for Jenny on the locks. Moored at Newbury tonight. Alan is a CAMRA man... no not a photographer. CAMpain for Real Ale CAMRA.. guess what ?? we are off to check out the local real ale pub later.

That's it for now...over to Jenny for editing and photos...TTFN as they say.