Three Swims

Not a puff of wind. Hardly any river traffic, and the sun not too scorching hot. A very nice day to be out and about. Cruised up to Eynsham, where alas, the public moorings were full of hireboating people having lunch. Went through Eynsham Lock, and on past the Swinford toll bridge, where we were able to moor ourselves up on the free part past the farmer's fields. Enjoyed a pleasant walk back into Eynsham, to pick up supplies. Sumo got two swims. Then we tickover cruised our way up the river for about a mile, and pulled into 'Oxford cruisers' hirebase, to order two spare fanbelts.

Decided to try our luck at Pinkhill resevoir, but unfortunately, we'd left it too late in the day, and it was full. There were plenty of moorings on the right hand bank (going upstream), but the fields were full of grazing sheep, and we didn't want to alarm or frighten them. As it was a beautiful day, and there were no boats coming in the opposite direction, we decided to carry on for a bit. Past the miles and miles of riverside caravan park, and have finally tied ourselves up for the evening on the free moorings at the excellently named 'Bablock Hythe'. Where Sumo got another swim, and I got a nice pint of extra cold Guinness.

Tomorrow, it's tempting to carry on further upstream. So totally different to our last journey on this stretch, where the wind was blowing in our faces all the way, and it was more about endurance. The river doesn't have a ripple on it, it's like a pond. A real pleasure to boat along. Everybody that we've spoken to, has said it's unusually quiet for this time of year. But, we'll probably head downstream, and try Pinkhill again. It looks nice there. Some nice wide open spaces to walk around.