War Horse
Posted: September 13, 2014 Filed under: Bobbing about, Dry land, Geeky facts, Moving on | Tags: Abingdon, Abingdon Heritage Open Day, Days lock, narrowboat blog, Thames, World Pooh Sticks Championships Leave a comment
A little out of place through Blackburn and Burnley, Nick’s pink shorts are right at home
down here on the Thames, in fact he looks a little underdone without a captain’s hat, Henri Lloyd deck shoes and striped shirt.
Murk’s morning walk resulted in discovering Abingdon Heritage Open Day, a stroke of luck as it hap
pened for just one day. Designed to transport visitors back 100 years the town was transformed by war horses, soldiers, choirs, Punch and Judy shows and perhaps the most surprising touch – windows displaying
information on war-time residents, many owners even opened their front doors for passers-by to experience the places soldiers lived before leaving to fight.
Mov
ing out of Abingdon the water was busy, boats of all shapes and sizes out for Saturday morning on the river. Magical boat houses hide away beneath the bo
ughs of trees beginning to turn, some of the enormous human houses are pretty impressive too. The miles ticked up as locks came and went. Tucked out the way co
mpared to others, Day’s Lock was quiet but since 1983, crowds gather there every March for the World Pooh Sticks Championships.
Beyond sad, we’re marking all the free mooring spots in Nicholson…there are more than we’d previously
thought although last time down we needed to see rings, or at
the very least bollards for a gap to register as moorable. Now, provided it’s plankable, it’s moorable. Home tonight is up from Cleeve Lock where, other than one disco thumping neon bright light party boat, the water has been still for hours.
Put To Bed
Posted: September 12, 2014 Filed under: Dry land, Moving on | Tags: Abingdon, Abingdon Meadow, Folly Bridge, Isis lock, Osney lock, Oxford, Thames, Thames licence Leave a comment
It was time to put Folly Bridge to bed. River conditions maybe as cal
m as they get, but no way was that bridge biting us twice, so we walked a loop – passing the site of our worst ever boat bash – ending up with one last walk through the city before untying and entering Isis lock.
The deeper water always makes the boat move well and we were soon into Osney lock, taping licences in the windows. We noticed so much more
compared to last time round when we were catapulted downstream under the force of red board water; there are marinas, ornate road bridges and even a few locks that we had
blanked out in our traumatised states. Separated in two parts by an island, it’s okay to travel on either side but not knowing that bit of information last time round is why
our paintwork is still visible on the stone arch today. Steeped in history, bursting with riverside life and Salters Steamers churning their way through the water makes for an idyllic view, yet what’s gone before is enough to keep a chill in the air.
Watching Oxford fade away the water opened up and trees stretched high, still bizarre to be the only boat around for miles on such a well-known river.
In need of water we motored along as the sun began to set, arriving at Abingdon there was 
wait for the water point, one handy thing about narrowboat travel is that dinner can be multitasked with water filling, lock waiting, lock dropping, moving along and mooring – which meant by the time we’d settled for night on Abingdon Meadow there was just enough time for drinks before food. Abingdon is twinkling outside, Nick figures it’s a good place to blow our whole seven days of Thames licence – a definite improvement from wanting to live at Star City.
Lets Be Friends
Posted: April 2, 2013 Filed under: Dry land | Tags: Abingdon, ByBox, ducklings Leave a comment
Walking through Abingdon we stumbled upon an ingenious idea: ‘ByBox’ – no more missing
deliveries when you’re at work, for £2 you can get them sent straight to ByBox, just visit the pigeon holes, enter your code and a door will pop open, revealing your parcel…also a fantastic discovery when you’re continually cruising; looks as though we may be a little late to this party, drop boxes seem to be in pretty much every town.
Had the Brightonians to stay, when they’d eventually found the car park. Nick and Soph did a bit of bloke chat, studying maps etc. Out to the pub where we heard the most terrifying tale about a narrow boat having been caught in the current earlier this week, ending up crunched underneath the pub.
Pullmans cabin guests are usually acutely aware of people on the 
towpath being able to peek through the tiniest slice in the curtains…not Sar and Soph, no way, they sat in bed, curtains open one side – waving to the people in the park, hatch open the other – raising a friendly hand to passing boats, happy as larry. Soph possibly overstepped the mark when she rummaged around pulling on her jeans, giving families an eye full of her lace clad, pasty blancmange bum. Sadly they had to leave, any longer and we may have been moved on for indecent exposure.
Sunny all day and warm enough for a
duck to bring out her ducklings, the wonder of this lasted all but a few minutes before it turned to horror when a goose arrived a tried to drown one of them. By nightfall any duckling appearances swiftly led to some well rehearsed goose defense from Nick.
Marpessa2 