We got away about 10.30am heading downstream. I love Abingdon Bridge, which is actually two
bridges, linked by Nag's Head Island. Abingdon Bridge is the northern part
towards the town which has six arches and crosses the backwater and mill
stream. The southern part is technically called Burford Bridge and has one main
arch and four minor arches at the river and two minor arches on the floodplain.
This crosses the main navigation channel. Furthermore, to complete the Thames
crossing, Culham Bridge crossing the Swift Ditch should also be considered as
an extension. Abingdon Bridge was begun
in 1416 and completed in 1422, using local limestone quarried at Besselsleigh
and Dry Sandford. The bridge was funded by Abingdon's religious guild, the
Fraternity of the Holy Cross. In 1453
"three new arches" were added at the southern end of the bridge, this
becoming known as Burford Bridge. It is
now Grade II listed.
Abingdon is always a riot of colour in the summer.
Culham, Clifton, Days and Benson locks flew by – well not exactly but
those are the locks we did today.
We pulled over for lunch just before Days lock. It was Richard’s second attempt at mooring
somewhere, but the first place was covered in goose poo and sadly so was the
second.
After lunch we set off to Days Lock and were just passing a green
narrowboat when we got yelled at – it sounded something like your boat looks
lovely! Then I suddenly realised that it
was Al from Derwent 6! I have read their blog from the very beginning – either
me reading blogs or them writing one! We
quickly moored up and picked our way through the goose poo to say hello. I love meeting fellow bloggers but also Al
and I have been Facebook friends for 5 years!
(Yes, I checked on Facebook and it is 5 years!) It was only a quick chat but maybe we will
catch them somewhere else sometime for a good catch-up. Sadly Del was up on Wittenham Clumps flying
his model glider. You can find Derwent
6’s blog here.
We passed one of my favourite houses on the River Thames and it’s for
sale!! In fact, it is a pair of
semis! However, they call one an
apartment and the other the house. The
apartment, with 3 bedrooms has just been sold and the house is still on the market
at £1,595,000. If you are interested in
looking it up, it is wonderful inside, Strutt and Parker are selling it. Oh yes, I quickly went and bought a couple of
lottery tickets – just in case!
Down through Wallingford, not a hope in hell’s chance of finding a
mooring there. Richard seemed to
remember somewhere way past Wallingford where he hoped to moor but he suddenly
swung the boat round as he had seen a nice place. We all agreed so that was going to be home
for the night.
We had planned a BBQ this evening, but Richard decided that it was a)
too windy and b) the grass was tinder dry and because of a) we might cause a
fire.
I got bitten today. I didn’t know
I had until I looked down at my leg and saw a nasty red rash. In fact it looks as if I have been bitten
about 5 or 6 times on both legs but the rash is just from one bite. The rash is really hot and tight and
altogether uncomfortable.
15.86 miles
4 locks
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