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Our new adventure day 19


Debs

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We woke to the alarm at 07:00hrs. (It's not like we're on holiday or anything!) We had a quick coffee, donned our waterproofs and set off from our moorings at Abingdon early (for us!) to get as far as possible before the torrential rain hit. We soon arrive at Culham lock which was still in self service mode. I jumped off the boat to go and do the lock keeping thing. The lock was empty and a boat was approaching from the other side so I opened the gates and allowed them in. This is a very slow lock to fill but I think it was hampered by the lack of water coming into it from the cut! Even I noticed how low the level was. Before long, we were joined by three other boats including a service boat. The service boat had just helped one of the other boats from being grounded in Abingdon. It wasn't long before the lock keeper turned up and started taking over. He then managed to fill the lock up a bit quicker so that the boat going up could leave the lock to allow us in. He then said that he had been called to go to the weir and sort out the shortage of water and that he was leaving the lock in our hands again. Once all the boats were in (bit of a tight squeeze), I closed the gates and started raising the sluices at the other end. "Strange!" I thought! "The sluice gates are opening more than normal." It was great! I could totally control how much the sluices opened. It was then that the lock keeper noticed that it was still in keeper mode and made me close the sluices again so he could put it back to public use. Hey ho! It was good while it lasted! Eventually, we were all able to continue our journeys. Apparently, the people on the boat behind ours thought that I was a lock keeper (they turned up after I had started operating it) then apologised once they found out the truth. 

Im glad that we had decided to put our waterproofs on today as they were, a very much, needed commodity. From 1pm the heavens opened again just to prove the BBC weathermen right! It has been a day of 'brolly up, brolly down, brolly up, brolly down'! We have, however, been really lucky with the locks in that they have all been manned (not counting the first one) and they have more or less opened as we've got to them. We passed through Wallingford but didn't stop today. Just after Wallingford I tried to photograph a Kingfisher that was sitting on some decking but failed miserably! We went under one of the amazing Brunell bridges. I can't help but wonder how many brickies it took to build this bridge or even, how many bricks it took. It really is a truly amazing feat of engineering!

We have now decided that enough is enough of this rain and have moored up for the night next to Beale Park. We have hung up our waterproofs to dry and lit the fire. Who would have thought that we would be lighting fires in August? A hot shower, some semi decent food and a few glasses of magic water should do the trick for tonight. I may even consider losing some more money at cards. Tomorrow is yet another day! 

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  • Greenie 1
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Love the pics as used to run this route loads on FIL's boats (Father-in-Law) and can recognise the bridges from the photos - we used to do Abingdon up and past Oxford and down as far as the tidal lock.....I never went through it.

Well done for ignoring the rain and enjoy!

Just stRting my first jaunt on my first nb next week so love reading these :) :cheers:

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Thank you for the kind words. Regardless of the rain it's still loads of fun. I just wish I didn't have to go back to work next week. Enjoy your jaunt. The weather will probably be loads better for you. Xx

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