Which brings us to today. And what a day we have just had. The theory was that we would travel from Goring to somewhere around Abingdon, stop for the night, and then continue on up to Wolvercote Green tomorrow. That is what we have done in years past. Unfortunately, all the water that has been falling from the skies has found its way into the Thames, and the flow is ridiculous. All day we had been hearing that various locks were on red boards – the signal that passage is not advisable. Of course, they can’t stop you from going through, but my take on it is that they know more about these things than I do, so if they say ‘stay put,’ then I will. I am happy to brave the amber warnings, but not the red ones…
Anyway – as things were constantly changing, I reckoned it would be a good idea just to get as far as we could today, until we met something that made us stop – so we kept battling our way upstream, occasionally passing red warning boards for the downstream sections. This is not a problem just now – but it might be when we come back down to do Long Whittenham. We’ll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it.
For the most part, the journey was not too bad. It makes you appreciate just what a good boat we have in Tyseley when you are ploughing past modern builds who are obviously struggling to make any headway against the stream. I am not sure whether they are under powered, or under propped. Whatever the case, they are going nowhere, whilst we can make pretty good time as long as the channel is not too narrow. The last stretch through the beginnings of Oxford was a bit of a nightmare, though. Not only are you sharing the water with a small flotilla of rowing boats, but the river gets narrow and windy. At points, even though the throttle was opened right out, we were only making about 2mph ground speed, and I wrenched all the muscles in my right arm trying to fight our way around the last few bends before Osney Lock. Which is where we are now tied up, along with several other narrow boats, waiting to find out it the red boards will come down tomorrow. Otherwise it looks like we will have to find a way of getting hold of the van. I do hope it won’t come to that! We have also had a phone call from Bablock Hythe suggesting that they may well be under water by the time we get there. Oh well.
1 comment:
I really feel for Mikron, both boating in this dreadful weather and having the unpredictability of what will happen during the performance. I love boating but it does have its scary moments. A few years ago now, when we still part owned a narrowboat that at the time was moored up in Nantwich, we had the wettest fortnight we'd ever had boating in June - probably similar to this year. We ended up on the Severn in flood and because of deadlines had to cruise up from Worcester to Stourport. Luckily we had a good boat with a responsive engine. We've had some pretty ropey hire boats over the years and said at the time that most of them wouldn't have coped with the flow at all.
Anyway, I really hope the weather improves soon. It's hard to think of Bablock Hythe being possibly under water remembering what a beautiful day it was last year. We had a picnic by the Thames before the show, and then enjoyed a great performance on a lovely balmy evening. We were lucky this year at the Bounty in that the rain held off for the duration of the performance, even though it got very chilly, and Dan's right about it being a beautiful location. Sadly though, from what we were told, I don't think the ferry's an option anymore, now there's a bridge to use to cross the river. As for the show...well, we both thoroughly enjoyed 'The Lacemakers' and it was great to see the new additions to the Mikron cast this year. Everyone did brilliantly.
We're moving house in two weeks' time but have booked to see 'Married to the Job' in Cranleigh the Saturday beforehand. It'll be wonderful to see the other show that Mikron is touring with this year but I think it will also do us good to get away from all the boxes and to think about something other than the move!
Finally I just wanted to say how much I'm enjoying keeping in touch with the tour through Dan's blog - keep up the good work and see you on the 14th!
Post a Comment