Back in Oxford again!

We found that as expected the Thames was on red alert for high stream flow, and so it would not be possible to access it today.  We are beginning to think that this might be the situation for the week to come, as more rain is forecast for Thursday and Friday which will raise the levels in the Thames again.  Today the water level at Reading was only 24 cms lower than the acceptable high, so we think the possibilities of being able to get to the Kennet and Avon are quite small.  So what we might do is spend a few more days in Oxford and then begin the journey back to Gayton!  Not quite the trip we had planned, but we are having fun, if not as much boating as we might have expected.

It was a lovely sunny day today, and so Belinda and I walked quite a lot of the way between locks, certainly from the 2nd lock on the trip down into the centre of Oxford - about 5 miles or so I guess.

There is something really calming and lovely about travelling through green trees, green water and the illuminations of glistening sunlight.  Very restful it was, even though it was the second time we'd done this route in this direction in the last week!  It's hard to believe the Thames is in spate, isn't it! 

As we passed back into Oxford we passed under a bridge that has this painting along it. I hadn't managed to successfully photograph it before! It has won some community art project I believe, and you can see why! 


So we are moored fairly close to where we were moored before - a bit further away from the lock, but a good enough spot.  And we shall have to see what happens next in terms of the weather and Thames navigation.  So as we were in Oxford by about 4.00pm we took the opportunity to explore what we could do for entertainment this evening.  Amelia had spotted that there was a performance of Don Giovanni put on by the Oxford Opera Society, and we decided that we would give that a go.  My goodness were we glad we did.  The singers were at times 6 feet away from us, and had the most amazing clear and lovely voices, and of course being an amateur production, they all put their hearts and souls into it.  It was absolutely fantastic.  The lead, Don Giovanni, was a man in his second year called Ben Gilchrist.  I would be really surprised if we didn't hear a lot from him in the future. Chris was sitting next to a lady who had been a friend of his family since Ben was in the push chair, so she was rightly impressed and excited to be there. The singers were all really strong, and absolutely on it - I found myself wondering what some of them looked like when they smiled as the women in particular are not having a good experience of life in the opera! 

The performance finished about 10.45pm and we all walked back to the boat - about 20 minutes walk - completely buzzing - an incredible evening! 

So I think it unlikely that anyone will be up to hear the madrigals from Magdalen Tower for the 1st May, but I think we have the best of 'reasons'.





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