From Oxford to... er, Oxford.

We made an early start this morning not knowing how far we'd be able travel due to the stream conditions. The nice lock keeper at Iffley was a man of few words:

Me: Good morning.

Lock keeper: It's red boarded.

Me: Yes, is it still bad upstream?

Lock keeper: It's red boarded.

Me: What time is it, please?

Lock keeper: It's red boarded.

So, we proceeded carefully since, you know, it was red boarded. "Extreme" narrowboaters are we.

To be honest, Rob is an able seaman having spent many, many years sailing in worse conditions. He knows his own limitations and the capabilty of our boat (which, has a very large engine).

We made our way into Oxford. South side of Folly Bridge was calm and pretty in the morning sunlight. Passing under the bridge we came across the sinking boat from Oxford Cruisers, which seems to be the talk of the tow path at the moment. It does seemed to have been moored in a silly place.

It was here and around Grandpont that the current quickened and we reached Osney Lock with some trepidation.

The lock keeper promptly gave us another red board card for our collection and we passed through without any problems. We are now moored outside The Watermans Arms waiting for the water to subside. The weir streams at Osney have been shut in a little, but the water is still going at a pace.

We are also stopping here to annoy the gentleman in the tuppaware moored behind us as he felt he was within his rights to shout abuse at us for going through a lock on red boards. I shake my fists at him! Pah.