After a suggestion from Barbara (her indoors) that we should try a boating holiday, it was decided that we (Barbara, Dan our 4 year-old son and I) would travel the Thames, taking Barbara's sisters, Monica and Christine with us to act as ballast...sorry....lock crew! After some discussion and much perusing of the Hoseasons brochure, we decided on a cruiser and the size and style of boat, combined with the price, narrowed our choice down to two or three. Our first choice was available for our desired dates (31/08/96 to 07/09/96) thus we booked an Oxford Plover from Oxford Cruisers of Eynsham.

A steady car journey south saw us collect our boat and get a short training stint before starting our journey toward Oxford, with yours truly at the helm, late on Saturday afternoon. We had decided on just a small first stint about 4.5 miles down-river through Eynsham Lock and Kings Lock to moor a little upstream of Godstow Bridge and Godstow Lock, near to the Trout Inn, Wolvercote. This very old pub with stone-flagged floors is split into several distinct areas with a smoke-filled "Reading room", main bar area with a newish bar, small bar area, restaraunt area and large bar food area. A long terrace and gardens with peacocks and pea-hens stands on the bank of the weir-run. The Draught Bass was nicely citric and fruity, while the Fullers London Pride was OK but a little bland - Hancocks HB was also available. My evening meal of roasted duck and chips was very tasty and reasonably priced. The Trout has also been the scene of "Inspector Morse" episodes.

Sunday morning saw us travel about 11 miles through Godstow Lock and Osney Lock, past Oxford to Iffley Lock and Sandford Lock and thus to Abingdon Lock, the only place we had to queue to get through a lock! The home of Morlands Brewery, Abingdon was our lunch stop and we attempted to moor outside the Anchor Inn, though our caution and lack of familiarity led us to move slightly further down-stream to easier moorings! A leisurly stroll back into town took us to the Anchor, where we found that they had just stopped serving food, so we walked further into town and found the Broadface. This was a fairly recently renovated single room Morlands pub with no character and lots of adverts for Morlands "Smooth-Stream" - their Nitro-Keg methinks! The Morlands Independent IPA was bitter though like the pub, lacking in character, while the Morlands Original was comparatively sweet though bland. After a fairly average Sunday lunch, a visit to the Anchor on the way back to the boat gave me my first Morlands Old Speckled Hen of the week, which was in excellent condition and restored my faith in Abingdon and the Brewery!

Continuing down-stream through Culham lock and Clifton Lock a 5.5 mile jaunt took us to Clifton Hampden, where we moored close to Clifton Hampden Bridge. We dined in the Plough, an old, quaint, thatched pub with a new toilet block, no other customers and delicious, though very expensive, haute cuisine. The Ruddles County was OK though nothing special. After our meal we walked across the bridge to the Barley Mow, a nice Scotish-Courage pub with large gardens and very good quality, fruity, bitter Ushers Best.