Fools Rushey in!

One critical piece of river advice we were told, and this is confirmed in the books, was, " always moor with your bow facing up river, even if you have to turn to do it " no explanation as to why. In fact we asked a man with 20 + years on boats and he couldn't answer it, ( I figure it has to do with the anchor and keeping the boat into moving water as designed ) but as half the boats we see don't bother, I am wondering if it's a bit of a myth. Still we will continue to do so and one day we may find out why.

We left Lechlade early, eager to get going, and to miss the worst of the forecast sun, ( we will miss it when it goes ) but as always the dogs are the main sufferers, as shade is scarce on the boat.
 Our first task was to turn the boat, we decided to just push the bow out and let the river turn us, it worked ! This confirms my theory that if you do things when nobody is around to see, they work, try the same thing a couple of hours later with witnesses, and we would  be wedged across the river with angry boaters either side waiting for the Micky Jay dam to be cleared.
We dropped three locks, sharing one of them with a flotilla of  kayaks, a little worrying for any side swing would have squashed them.We decided to moor before Rushey lock, at a spot noted on our way up, it is pretty much ideal, both beautiful and remote, with the bonus of peaceand quiet and paths for dog walking.

Mooring seen from the stern

And looking forward

All set for a cool drink, Archie on guard of course

Somebody always spoils the view, err -  us as it happens

A poor shot of Norman and his vintage engined boat, he can be seen waving from the engine room ( just )

Choosing pictures is hard around here as it's all nice,  the camera just doesn't show the whole thing or pass across the feeling of the area, nor the scale of the places we see, best to hire a boat and see it yourself.
We may stay here for a few days, and take a walk into Bampton, only a few miles away via the many footpaths, if we had a map we would stand a better chance of ever seeing the place, and still be speaking !

Bye for now,
Baz and Ali.