The Thames

We slipped through Kidlington and onto the river Thames early this morning, we are aiming up the river at the moment, towards Lechlade. At the first lock we came to they relieved us of a chunk of money, as we have a standard licence that does't include the Thames, the locks are large and manned, taking some of the pressure off Ali in particular.
Rivers are new to us, so we are being cautious, the main worry is the changing water levels, but as we have had no rain for a while, flooding seems unlikely, running out of water is more of a risk. We have moored just past Swinford toll bridge ( toll for cars etc not us ) our mooring site is a bit rough edged, so much so that   "the plank" has had to be deployed, much to Ali and the dogs disgust, so care must be taken by all, the dog life jackets have also been dusted off.
The area is great, again hard to capture it with a couple of photos, some places you just have to be there, and that's why we are living this life, do it rather that talk about it!

We were warned that this bridge was tight for boats with kit on the roof, they were right

Stop lock leading on to the Thames, hard to find in all the over grown weeds !

Goodbye the Oxford canal

This way the Thames

Just a bit wider, Mickey's prop finally in deeper water and happy

As we said, watch out for changing river conditions

Wide manned lock, this one is Eynsham lock

Lock keeper does his stuff, luxury!

Ali checks the plank for the hundredth time, at our Thames mooring 

The weather of course continues blazing hot and similar is forecast for the weekend. The good weather is really the cherry on the cake in what feels like a pretty idyllic situation.

We are a few minutes walk from regular buses into Oxford and Witney. There is a pub a couple of hundred yards away from Swinford Bridge and it is 3/4 of a mile to Eynsham where there is a butcher's, chemist and so on.

Ali spent her childhood in this area and having not been back here for a while is experiencing feeling that so much is familiar and yet there are new adventures ahead - a very agreeable feeling!

Bye for now

Ali and Baz