Monday 22 June 2015

Lechlade to Chimney

Staying in one place for six days is a record for us, Lechlade is the navigable end of the Thames for powered craft, a nice place to chill out for a few days. The village has a few antique
shops to wander around, a good butcher come green grocer, a co-op, Indian, Chinese and Italian restaurants, cafe, plus a few pubs. We put a few coins into the local economy via some of the above establishments.

The Trout


The friendly farmer comes by each morning to collect a fee, his cows do circuits of the field occasionally stopping at moored boats to give them a lick and the ropes a bit of a chew.
It was quite comical to see boaters popping out of the cabin doors to guard their boats from the marauding moo cows. We just let the cattle get on with it apart from when one of them swiped the flag.

Today we moved off and winded above Half Penny Bridge and started to retrace our steps towards Oxford. We got rid of the dumpables at the services at St. Johns lock, a last look back towards the spire of St. Laurence, a wave to the locky and we are away meandering to Buscot lock, a couple of large military aircraft with wheels down towards Fairford airfield roar overhead. The village of Kelmscot is on the North bank -we stopped here overnight last year and visited the Plough . At Grafton lock, which is probably the remotest lock on the Thames we fill the nearly dry water tank.

In between Rushey lock and Shifford lock there isn't many opportunities to moor, the banks being overgrown or full of reed beds, after the pub mooring at Tadpole bridge there is only the one opposite the hamlet of Chimney , luckily for us it was vacant.





St Laurence spire.
Tonight's mooring.

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