Abingdon

We stayed over Friday as planned as the forecast was dire......however in the event it was nowhere near as bad as we had been led to believe.   Nothing lost as it was a good day and good position for visitors.   Wally stopped off on his way up from Taunton to London(just a slight detour)  and Maggie came on the train from London and we were only 5 min from the station.   A good day was had by all.

Before they came I walked up to the shops and was annoyed that the chauffeur had had the temerity to take our car out for a spin

Today we planned to be at the lock at 9 with the aim of getting to Abingdon late morning in the hope of finding space to moor.   We hung around a little too long and we in the second lockful down...obviously everyone with the same idea......

This was our first real trip down the river and now we were into wide water and lots of different sorts of boats.

Some big

Some small

Some bigger

And the boat houses to keep them in

The weather was showery and occasionally very blustery but it is a pleasant run down just 4 locks to Abingdon.....and all with lock keepers.   Barney is not impressed as he has to stay on boat as do we.  he is used to hopping off and assisting Geoff at locks. now they are both going to miss their exercise.......

On the plus side we do pass some very pretty places.

And even some wild life

Today we saw our first Kingfisher of the year...far too nifty to catch on camera......we had been wondering where they had all vanished to...

The other difference now is the speed we can travel at.....today there were times when we were nearly doing 5 mph....!!!

And so to Abingdon.  We could see when we were in Abingdon lock that it looked very busy down below...so much for getting here early.    The wind was blowing quite well and we made one attempt to get in a space that was just big enough for us but there was some sort of obstruction close in and despite someone coming and trying to help pull us in we kept going aground so decided to abandon the attempt.  We trawled on down through the bridge but nowhere looked very hopeful so we turned around (Can't do that on the canal) and started back along the line of boats.  Eventually we spotted a space right on the end of the mooring which was about half the length of Petroc.  So here we sit quite snugly with access only from the bows but we are securely(I hope)  tied up on no less than 4 stakes.  We are on the meadow side which is ideal for Barney, he promptly took himself off and snuggled into the longish grass.

9.04 miles, 4 locks, 3hr 29min