Christ Church meadow, Oxford
We arrived at Iffley lock and told Ferd, the lock keeper that we will not be seeing him again this trip. Whilst we were waiting for the lock to fill; he went off, only to reappear soon after cutting some Roses, which he presented to Myra.
We had a good chat and as we eventually pulled away from the lock, we realised that the spirit of the boating community; which is disappearing from the canals, is alive and well on the Thames.
I hope that the management style of the EA takes a long time to break the wonderful attitude and pride of the lock keepers in their work.
Having tied up at Christ Church meadow, I was chatting to the boat owner upstream of us. He is a retired Policeman from Dorset, who managed to keep a nice little job as driver to three Chief Constables over a twelve year period. I managed to stop chatting in time for lunch, but it was a close thing.
2009 Totals: 257 Locks – 534.5 miles – 12 Bus pass uses
