Lechlade & Back

Twisty, Turny. We've had a lovely time. Both of us glad we made the decision to come up here, and avoid the summer rush of lower down the river. No massive queues for locks. No jostling for mooring space, or asking grumpy cruiser owners to "budge up a bit" (please). We've encountered very few other boats on the way, and have just been pootling along at tickover speed for most of the journey. Stress factor = 0%.

The bridge at Newbridge. Built in 1285. Destroyed by Puritans in the Civil war, but later rebuilt. Tadpole bridge (further on upstream) may be older, but it only has the one large central span, and lacks the charm and character of this one.

Moored up on the Wedding reception lawn, so that Mister could have a good old run around.

Everything was going fine, until we got to Newbridge, where our throne broke. The plastic pegs buried inside the kickstarter had sheared off, so the little ball wouldn't spin anymore. Eek! Headed back to Oxford Cruisers, where Mark kindly sold us a new secondhand pedestal from a hireboat at a heavily discounted price. Cheers! Dismantled the toilet, scrubbed everything down and reassembled. Sorted. What a lovely job, when I should have been sat out on the back deck, with my feet up, enjoying a Pimms (or two).

Dragonflies all over the place. Sheena spotted 14 in less than an hour.

Panorama of Bablock Hythe. We managed to get our first Tesco home shopping delivery to the boat here. Wonderful! Having ice and six days worth of meals onboard made a tremendous difference to our journey. Thanks for the tutorial on getting it sorted, Sue.

Picked up this passenger on our way upstream. He seemed quite used to human company, and only moved when Sheena wondered if he was hungry, and chucked a poppy cracker at him.

The spire of Lechlade, viewed from our kitchen window. An hour after we'd moored up, Steve McFadden (Phil Mitchell from BBC soap 'Eastenders') chugged by on his barge "Barbara". We got woken up at 8.30am the next morning, by a farmer banging on the roof wanting his 4 quid.