The last bit of the Oxford Canal navigated

Thrupp to Oxford


At the very (Oxford) end of the Oxford Canal

At last. I have now covered every inch of the Oxford Canal from Hawkesbury Junction to Oxford itself.* Today I did the last bit of "new" water, between Isis Lock and the terminus in the town centre. Tomorrow I'll have to reverse back to Isis Lock to be able to wind to return northwards. And that will involve locking down onto the Thames to wind, and then going back up again. I haven't told Jan yet - the Thames is not her favourite waterway!

But first, this morning we walked from Thrupp along the towpath to Hampton Gay looking for the ruins visible in the fields. Again, I cursed myself for forgetting to bring my OS maps. We walked along a footpath in what I thought was the right direction, but we couldn't see any ruins. The annoying thing is that we found them easily the last time we were here, about ten years ago. We did see something I hadn't seen before, though. We all know there are several boats with the same name. Kingfisher, Narrow Escape etc. There is more than one Shadow, too. But how often do you see two bosts with the same name moored next to each other?


In Oxford we came across a rehearsal for a concert taking place later in the evening, so we sat and listened for a while. The Aurora Orchestra was preparing for an evening of Mahler.


The bits we heard - a movement from his fourth symphony and a song from Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen were superb. We really ought to have gone to the performance, but we hadn't eaten, and I'd already planned to go to Choral Evensong in one of the colleges.

I went to Queen's. The choir was excellent: I could hear every word!

*I'm not including all the bypassed former loops or arms,as most of these are private moorings.