Oxford

Yesterday we continued our journey to Oxford, there was some traffic on the canal, inevitably I met two incoming boats, both at bridges and we were following another boat so the locks were against us. It was a fairly pleasant day so a slightly slow journey was quite enjoyable.

Unusually the final three lift bridges are actually operable from the towpath side which must be a very welcome innovation for solo boaters. The final approach to Oxford is lined with towpath moorings and conservation areas marked as no mooring areas. There are a couple of short stretches of 48 hour moorings but the edge is very poor, so much so that to label them as mooring sites is quite frankly laughable. If a site is designated as a visitors mooring I expect it to at least have a decent edge. We managed to take the last space on the 7 day moorings just over a mile from the end of the canal. The edge there was no better but we had heard tales of how hard it is to moor in Oxford so decided to play safe.

As it was a pleasant afternoon we walked into Oxford only to discover we could have moored a little closer at the 24hr moorings where there are mooring rings and a decent edge and that there was loads of space on the 48hr moorings, some of which has a decent edge and rings and some, a little less desirable, has neither and is opposite some flats.

This morning we moved down to the 48hr moorings and are now moored within easy reach of the city centre. My hopes of spending a day wandering round Oxford taking photos were somewhat dashed by the typical spring weather, rain and hail! The forecast for tomorrow doesn't look very promising either.

Yesterday and today's journey 4.6 miles, 4 locks and 3 lift bridges

This year we have travelled 189.4 miles, 192 locks, 5 swing bridges, 7 lift bridges and 2 tunnels

In 2012 we travelled 876.9 miles, 675 locks,  55 swing bridges, 23 lift bridges and 31 tunnels

In 2011 we travelled 461.4 miles, 444 locks, 3 swing bridges, 34 lift bridges and 15 tunnels

During 2010 we travelled 740.3 miles, 642 locks, 53 swing bridges, 4 lift bridges and 25 tunnels

Since Ray retired we have travelled 2268 miles, 1953 locks, 116 swing bridges, 68 lift bridges and 73 tunnels