On July 21st we said goodbye to our friends Anne & Edward who took a short taxi ride to Oxford Station to catch a train back to Sheffield. It was another warm and sunny day.
Back on the boat we passed through Eynsham Lock and headed for Duke's Cut and the Oxford Canal - retracing our steps home. That night we eat at
The Boat in Thrupp in the Morse Room. As usual we had good food, ale and cider and there were some literary references on the wall.
The Boat Inn
Almost the correct date for our visit
The next day we moved on to Somerton.
Leaving Thrupp
Enslow satellite dishes
It started out bright and sunny and we managed to moor up alongside the quarries at Kirtlington which is a nature reserve.
Kirtlington quarries mooring
Inside the quarry
Arriving at Somerton in heavy rain
It started raining heavily as we arrived an I felt a bit like a drowned rat. We moored up on sheet piling, closed up the boat, settled in, an waited for the rain to pass. After some time we felt the boat move but couldn't see a boat passing. Then it happened again! At this point a couple from a neighbouring boat knocked on the cabin side and announced there was a cow under our bows. As we looked down all we could see was an eye. The poor beast was caught under the boat. By prodding with a boat pole we managed to get the cow, which turned out to be a bullock, to paddle off in the other direction - only to get caught under the next boat. He couldn't get out where he obviously fell in because of the sheet piling. He then turned, came back and got caught under Albert again. We all started to get worried at this point because the poor beast was tiring itself out. However, just when we started thinking of emergency services he got diverted across the canal and climbed out on the soft-sided bank. We then had a little while contemplating what to do next because the beast was on the wrong side and away from the herd. It turned out that the herd roamed all the fields around the mooring and knew how to cross the canal using Somerton Bridge.
Our mooring at Somerton Meadows
Bullock and boat
(back in the correct field)
The Somerton Meadows Herd
It was a night's mooring we are unlikely to forget in a hurry.
