It is all new today!!!

Lovely sun to lift the spirits this morning, and with the news I needed it. After making preparations for passing through to the Thames we set off.

We stopped for water at the point before the moorings before the Dukes Cut. We soon penned down the Duke's Lock and rounded the corner into the Dukes Cut past the Canal house overlooking the junction.

Passing under the low bridge and into the dark of a tunnel of trees  suited my mood as I now feel we have passed form the light to the dark. The passing from the canals to the River Thames was also a sort of reflection of the certainty of moorings on the canal to hit and miss on the river and water levels may well reflect the rise and fall of the economy etc. That is it for that stuff now.

When at sea it was always thought to be good luck to be passing under a rail bridge when a train passed overhead, so maybe this was a good omen. Hell, I needed one!!

The Duke's Cut was no more salubrious than the Sheepwash Channel and seemed to be embarrassed or the backdoor from the/to the Thames. 

The windy, reed fringed waterway came to a junction and a sign.

And finally we approach the Thames. Just to the left is King's Lock, but we turned right to the west and Lechlade.

There were several people walking the Thames Footpath but few boats about. The views to the Wytham Great Wood and Hill

We are on the flight path to RAF Lynham and Brize Norton I should think and the first to pass over was a C17 Globemaster Transport for the RAF. This was followed by several A400M Atlas planes rather than the old Hercules planes that I sat many hours on.

The Lock Keeper and his deputy were on duty when we arrived at Eynsham Lock. I asked if there were moorings above the lock and he recommended that we moor up below the lock so we reversed out and lashed up at the end of the jetty. Then there was a run of traffic up and down.

Here we are on the tail of the landing. You can see the buoys that mark a shallow washed down by the weir. In fact the one near to us has been dragged out of position so is not in the right place. It causes boats to come very close to us though when coming into the lock.

Eynsham Lock from Swinford Toll Bridge with 'Holderness' in the distance on the right.

At these prices you would think it hardly worth while collecting a toll. It was built in 1777 and not too long ago it went to auction. It seems that over 4 million vehicles pass over it. If all were just 5p that would bring in £200,000. Say £100,000 for wages, repairs and putting money aside for major works. That is still not a bad income every year, if you have a spare million or two.

We walked into Eynsham, about 15 mins, and saw in the very good DIY/Ironmongers shop that there was a film show this evening in the Village Hall for £5. It is Dad's Army and as it was largely filmed near to where we live, and we haven't managed to see it yet, we popped in and bought tickets. there weren't many left. On the way back to the boat it started to chuck it down. Luckily we were close to the Talbot Pub and so we popped in for a pint of Wiltshire Gold from Arkell's gravity poured too. I hope the film is good and we don't keep pointing out the places we know.