Date - 22 7 09 Day - Wednesday Start - Osney Bridge 1015 End - Babcock Hythe 1600
President started getting steam up some time before 8 which filled our back cabin with steam coal smoke. We gave them a good lead before we set off as we decided we would turn up the Oxford canal and then back to the Thames via Dukes Cut as this would give a bit more interest with narrow locks and lift bridges for Bethan, my grand daughter.We finally pushed off a few minutes after 10 am. after chatting with the Osney Lock Keeper who comes from Lowestoft. Isis lock was not only empty but the bottom gate was open which made a good start to the canal. There is still no change at the old boat yard, all the no mooring buoys are still there and the green plywood fencing, I am surprised no one has tried to take possession of it again. I noticed that some of the Blackberries on the off side have changed black all ready, up until now we had only seen very young fruit. Passing under the A34 flyover I see that they have replaced the concrete beams that they were removing last time we came this way with steel ones, we were not delayed at all and a chap in hard hat and hi vis jacket even opened the lift bridge for us. At Dukes Cut we turned hard left and headed back to the Thames to continue our journey up stream. There was a 24 hour mooring free at Eynsham Lock so we pulled in for lunch, once above the lock we stopped again to fill with water before heading off to our overnight mooring at Babcock Hythe where we tied up at about 4 pm. You will find our latest position at http://tinyurl.com/Harnser-s-route -- Brian
