Route :- Braunston-Napton-Cropredy-Aynho-Thrupp-Oxford-Abingdon-Reading-Sonning-Maidenhead-Windsor-Staines-Penton Hook

Waterways :- Oxford Canal, River Thames

Day 1 - Braunston Marina - Napton Bottom Lock

Mike, who sold us Loki, gave us a very thorough handover, showing us how everything on the boat worked and should be maintained, and also took us up and back down Braunston Lock, so we could get a feel for canal locks. His left us a little after 11am, and we cruised on towards Napton. It was the first weekend of the last week of October - half-term week - so a lot of people were just collecting hire boats and the canal was very busy.

Our aim was to reach the Old Engine House Arm, near the top of the Napton flight of locks, by the end of the day. Congestion was the main cause of delay early on, but the going was easy in fair weather, and the bridges were wide.

Just as we reached the Napton Bottom Lock, our engine cut out and would not restart. We drifted past a couple of narrowboats, who were more concerned by the possibility that we were jumping the queue for the lock than the fact that we were adrift. We chucked a rope at a pedestrian on the towpath and he kindly pulled us over to the bank where we could moor. We didn't know who to call about the engine, but we thought we would try Gary in Northampton - Gary was supposed to have fitten a new windscreen wiper for us but had received the wrong part and so would not be able to do that until Monday. Maybe he knew about engines. We called him and he not only knew about engines, but had only just serviced our engine, so was naturally concerned that it should fail so quickly. He promised to come out and see us, but said it would take him an hour to get to us. It was about 2pm - given the time it would take for Gary to reach us, examine the engine and, potentially, fix any problem, we knew we wouldn't be making much more progress that day.

Gary came out and, as soon as he tried to start the engine to see what was wrong with it, was able to start it up first time. He checked everything on the engine and couldn't find a single fault with it. We were all baffled, but at least we had a working engine. We made it through the Bottom Lock (with the 'help' of some rather impatient narrowboaters who had little time for canal newbies) before deciding to moor there rather than attempt the rest of the flight.

We were by the Folly Bridge, where there is a small shop and a pub. We got some supplies in the shop and had a chat with the friendly people there. The man behind the till clearly knew less about the canals than he imagined - he insisted that it would take months to get to London from Napton and that even Banbury was at least a week away. We were lucky in deciding to return to the boat to deposit our shopping before going to the pub, because it meant that we were able to discover in the failing daylight that I hadn't hammered the mooring peg into the bank at the right angle and it had come out of the ground, leaving the boat adrift at the bow, meaning that it had swung completely around and was now facing back the way we had come. We fixed this fairly easily before dinner in the pub and an early night.

Day 2 - Napton Bottom Lock - Cropredy

We woke early and set off shortly after 7.30am (not realising until later in the week that you're technically not allowed to have your engine running on a canal before 8am). We knew we would tackle the locks more easily without lots of people watching us impatiently, and we were right. On the Napton flight, we averaged just 9 minutes per lock - me operating the lock and Eva guiding the boat gingerly in and out. Then, as we approached the Top Lock, the engine failed again. A family in the narrowboat Contentment were very helpful in getting us to the bank, where we moored and called Gary again. He remained baffled until he suggested checking the seal on the petrol tank. Mike had shown me on the spare tank how to ensure that the seal was open, so that a vacuum wouldn't form in the tank, preventing the engine from drawing fuel through. What he had forgotten to do, and I had forgotten to check, was open the seal on the tank that was already attached to the engine. Problem solved - we didn't have another engine failure for the rest of the journey.

We pressed on, through some attractive but unremarkable countryside, to Fenny Compton. We went through the Fenny Compton 'Tunnel' - a former tunnel with the top removed to make it just a narrow cutting - and managed to make it to the Claydon flight of locks by the middle of the afternoon. We negotiated this flight down with the same speed as the Napton flight up, but by now it was raining quite hard, and we were having a lot less fun. We put the canopy up on the boat, and worked out a system of dropping the crossbar to get under bridges, leaving the canopy drooping on top of our heads. We arrived in Cropredy in the early evening, with just enough light to moor by.

Day 3 - Cropredy - Aynho Bridge

It was foggy when we set off, but thankfully the weather picked up and today turned out to be a very pleasant day. We filled up our water tank for the first time at Cropredy (to the annoyance of some very impatient narrowboaters who wanted to use the same facilites shortly before we were done with them) and also got a few more supplies from the local shop there.

By noon, we had arrived at Banbury, where we moored up. Gary needed to come out and install our new windscreen wiper, and Banbury seemed the best place to do it. While moored, we decided to try the shower on the boat for the first time - not a great experience, primarily because the drain appeared to be completely blocked and we had to bail out the cubicle when we had finished. Gary and Dave came and fitted the windscreen wiper and we were on our way again. Banbury lift bridge is extremely low and took some careful negotiation, and Banbury lock is right in the middle of the town's shopping centre, so we passed through it with quite an audience.

Somewhere around Twyford Bridge, the engine stopped again, but this time the problem was quickly identified as nothing more than an empty fuel tank - we were able to drift over to the towpath to swap tanks and get going again. However, the problem of finding petrol on a diesel-driven canal now reared its head.

At Aynho Weir, the Cherwell crossed the canal and boaters are advised not to proceed if the colour-coded water-level boards are showing only red, meaning the water level is too high to allow for safe passage. The boards were showing red and about a centimetre of orange - we decided to risk it and came to no harm. We finished the day by Aynho Bridge - a fairly busy road bridge - with a very pleasant dinner in the Great Western pub.

Day 4 - Aynho Bridge - Thrupp

The first thing that happened as we were untying our boat in the morning was watch a minor road accident as a car driver - probably distracted by the pretty boats on the canal - went into

the back of the car in front. Dented bumpers and broken glass but no one hurt.

Today went smoothly. The weather was fair and we had well and truly got into the swing of the locks, which we navigated like experts. Bridges were another problem. South of Banbury, the bridges were getting decidedly smaller - both lower and narrower. Loki was, theoretically, small enough to get through, but that's in normal conditions. With the water level higher than usual, we were finding it necessary to be rather more inventive in order to get under bridges. Not only the canopy but the windscreen had to come down and, even then, I would often have to walk down to the towpath under the arch and physically pull the boat through.

Lift bridges were another problem. I couldn't pull Loki under those because I was on the bank holding the bridge up - not that easy given how heavy the bridges are and I am not. It would take time each time it happened, but Eva always managed to get Loki under each lift bridge eventually.

Petrol was a pressing issue - I knew we would be fine to make it to the end of today, but I couldn't guarantee that we would be able to go another full day without refuelling. Thankfully, my brother lives near Reading and was willing to come out an help. We moored in Thrupp and went for a little walk along the Cherwell and into Kidlington before enjoying our first ever dinner cooked on board the boat. Eva went to bed and my brother and his wife drove out to pick me up with an empty petrol tank and take me to the Sainsbury's petrol station down the road. Afterwards, we sat in the very cosy and friendly Boat Inn until closing time.

Day 5 - Thrupp - Abingdon

Today was Eva's birthday. It was also, unfortunately, by far the worst day of the whole trip.

First of all, it was foggy and raining, and the weather would not improve all day. This meant having the canopy down in heavy rain for the first time - we simply couldn't have made it under the bridges otherwise. It also meant me operating locks and lift bridges in the rain - which rather takes the fun out of it.

I had been dreading Yarnton Bridge in Kidlington for days but, as it turned out, although it probably was the lowest bridge on the canal, it was also quite wide and easy to pass under compared to virtually every other bridge in the southern section of the canal.

After Kidlington, we finally made it into Duke's Cut, said goodbye to the Oxford Canal and prepared ourselves to join the Thames. The river, like the canal, was well above normal levels and we realised when we joined it just how fierce the currents can be when the river is in spate. At King's Lock, the lock-keeper sold us our short-term licence to be on the river (handing me two strips of paper and telling me to fix them inside the window on each side of the boat, but not giving the means to fix them, which struck me as pretty odd); he also advised us to keep our canopy down until we had passed Osney Bridge further downstream. Although we can normally go under Osney Bridge with the canopy up, the lock-keeper had correctly predicted that the river was so high, we would need all the clearance we could get.

First, we had Godstow Bridge - low and narrow by Thames bridge standards, but apparently harmless compared to what we had seen on the Oxford Canal. However, the canal doesn't have the currents of the river. In my attempt to approach the bridge slowly, I merely allowed the current to dictate our path, and we quickly found ourselves lodged fast against the right hand side of the arch, unable to move and with gel coat scraped off the roof of the boat. It took about ten minutes of shoving with boat hooks and general shouting at each other before I discovered, mostly by accident, that the strength of the current allowed me to turn the stern of the boat around by reversing the engine, without getting stuck in the reeds as I had feared might happen. On our second attempt, we made it through Godstow Bridge, and we kept our canopy down for the relatively easy passage under Osney Bridge.

We moored briefly above Osney Lock before setting off again - the workers in the factory above the lock rushed to the window to watch the lunatic in the eight-metre boat succesfully execute a three-point turn in a hellish current in a channel only about ten metres wide. Although our plan had been to stop at Sandford, just south of Oxford, the current was so fierce that we were moved swiftly on downstream and we reached Abingdon before feeling the need to stop for the night. We needed a wash, some warmth and a comfortable bed, so we left Loki tied up just below Abingdon bridge and spent Eva's birthday night in a hotel.

Day 6 - Abingdon - Sonning

Even though we stopped for a pump-out and to buy some new ropes in Abgindon (where the friendly people at Kingcraft Abingdon Boat Centre gave us plenty of valuable boating advice), it was still clear that we would be well ahead of schedule for the trip down the river. We were supposed to end the day in Wallingford, but we would pass there by lunchtime, and the question would be whether or not we would end up in Pangbourne or even further down in Sonning.

Petrol was a slight concern again. I reckoned we might just have enough to get us all the way to Penton Hook, but that's not thw kind of gamble you want to take on a fast-flowing Thames. Running out of fuel no longer means drifting gently over to the towpath - it means being carried forcefully into a solid object like a bridge or another boat. Redline Outboard Services in Abingdon was inexplicably closed, so the next petrol stop would be in Henley - a day away.

The day passed largely without incident. We were so focussed on reaching our destination that we didn't really get much chance to look at the scenery. We had the side panels rolled up, but we left the canopy up, even though the weather was fair and the bridges easy to navigate from here on - putting the canopy up and down was a hassle we could live without.

Many of the locks were showing red boards, meaning that the water level and current were considered so high as to be a potential hazard to boats on the river. One lock-keeper calmly handed me a card - shown on the right - before equally calmly telling me that the current got better a few locks further down, i.e. I should ignore the advice on the card and just keep going.

At Moulsford, we passed Sheridan Marine, where we had previously looked at a boat for sale that we had decided not to make an offer on (and which is now for sale at Penton Hook, by coincidence) and the stretch from Goring down to Pangbourne is one that we had walked on the day we saw that boat, and so brought back happy memories.

We reached Pangbourne around 3.30pm. Sonning was still a few miles and a couple of locks away, but we decided to push our luck and go for it. The last thing we wanted to end up doing was spending the night in Reading.

The lock-keeper at Caversham Lock did his best to thwart us. We arrived at two minutes to five, and the locks are supposed to be staffed until 5pm. The lock-keeper, however, had decided it was home time and, after a few encouraging words to Eva as he climbed into his car, he drove off to leave her to operate the lock herself. Thames locks are all automatic, but only when the lock-keeper is there. When left on manual, they are extremely hard work - much harder than canal locks. It took 45 minutes to get through Caversham Lock - not helped by the annoyed locals who use the path across the top gate as their way home and resented being made to wait fifteen minutes while Eva struggled to open and then close the gates.

It was now nearly six, and the light was failing fast. All concern for bank erosion and riperian speed limits went out of the window as we made a last ditch bid to get to Sonning. We just made it - the sun had set and there was only a glimmer of light left as we moored up next to the slightly startled occupants of a hire cruiser. We had got to Sonning a full day ahead of schedule, which meant we had only two days left to go.

Day 7 - Sonning - Maidenhead

The current had died down a little and so our plan was to do on Friday the journey that was originally planned for Sautrday: Sonning to Cliveden.

We set off soon after nine, once we were certain the keeper of Sonning Lock was at his station. I had called ahead to Hobbs of Henley to check that they were open and serving petrol that day because, otherwise, we would have had to go back upstream for a couple of miles and get petrol from the Tesco at Reading.

Hobbs did have petrol, but they also had a landing stage that was crowded with other boats and very difficult to get access to. It took a few goes, but we eventually managed it - and the man at Hobbs who filled our tank said he'd seen plenty of worse efforts from boaters. We also filled our water tank there.

From Henley down to Windsor the next day, the river would be littered with rowers, the cyclists of the waterways. Like cyclists, rowers have an unwavering belief in their moral superiority over powered vehicles and this belief relieves them of any obligation to show the kind of consideration to other river users that they expect back. The coaches engaged in training the rowers are similarly oblivious of other traffic and also apparently ignorant of any form of basic courtesy. When one set of rowers, spread out across the entire width of the river, forced us into a precarious standstill to allow them past, we received neither thanks nor apology from the coach, nor even any acknowledgement that we existed.

We faced another decision now as to where to moor for the night. We would get to Cliveden around 4pm. However, since our supplies wre low, we really needed to be somewhere where we could get food. It looked possible to walk from Cliveden to Maidenhead but we realised that, since we would effectively be mooring in the grounds of Cliveden, which close at 6pm, we would risk being denied access back to the boat. If we continued on past Cliveden, then it would mean stopping at Maidenhead itself - the next possible stop, Bray Marina, was just a bit too far and we didn't want another mad dash like the one we had had to Sonning.

Maidenhead is not the best place to moor. The mooring sites between Boulter's Lock and Maidenhead Bridge are close to a main road, under a busy flight path and still some way from the town centre. On the other hand, the path at river level is well below the pavement at street level, and so unfrequented by non-boating pedestrians; and, if you get as close to Maidenhead Bridge as you can, there is a petrol station with a cash machine, two hotels with bars, a Thai restaurant and a Chinese restaurant (both doing takeaway) all within five minutes' walk. We took our Chinese food back onto the boat before settling down for our last night on board.

Day 8 - Maidenhead - Penton Hook

Given the traffic noise and the fact that this would be our last day of the journey, we needed little encouragement to set off soon after nine. From Windsor Marina all the way down to Old Windsor, the river was clogged with rowers - it was a Saturday and the sun was, more or less, visible. I can tell you from my various encounters with Eton rowers and their teachers that the idea that English public schools teach decent manners is now badly out of date.

For much of the day we were accompanied by a large vessel called Cormorant. I couldn't tell you what kind of boat she was, but she was about 60 feet long, probably 10 feet wide, metal hulled and obviously ocean-going. It was a surprise to see something so large so far upstream - she was, I would guess, being taken down to the estuary before all the locks on the river are closed for winter maintenance. She had been converted into a floating apartment for the couple that owned her and were now, on their own, bringing her down river. Given her bulk and obviously industrial purpose when built, I thought she had become a boat of some elegance and luxury - something to upgrade to one day perhaps!

At Old Windsor Lock we were joined by yet another substantial vessel - MV Lucia - whose recent history appeared to be similar to that of Cormorant's. Loki was very small in comparison with her temporary escorts.

It felt almost unreal to come through Penton Hook lock and make the sharp right turn into the channel leading up to Penton Hook Marina. At the marina, we got Loki pumped out one last time, and drained the water tank. After unloading our belongings, we said goodbye to Loki. We will not be on board on the water again until next April - by which time she will have a new name. We finally set off for home in a minicab at about 3pm - more than a full day ahead of our original plan. It had been a difficult and exhausting journey - but enjoyable overall. We look forward to many, more relaxed, days aboard Wand'ring Bark next season.

If you should ever find yourself asking: should a couple with no experience boating attempt to take a Viking 26 narrowbeam cruiser down the Oxford Canal and a large section of the Thames in the last week of October - the answer is, probably yes, but expect some difficulties.

A day-by-day account of the voyage follows this post, but first some overall impressions.

The Viking 26 narrowbeam may be built narrow enough for British canals, but that doesn't mean she is entirely happy on them - at least, not on the Oxford. Everyone warned us to check that her beam would allow her to pass through even the smallest locks on the canal, which it did. What no one warned us about was the issue of her height above water. One of our guidebooks alerted us to the fact that Yarnton Bridge was bery low - without mentioned that virtually every other bridge was very low as well. We were not helped by the fact that Loki's windscreen lowers by folding outwards, so when you lost height you also gain a couple of inches in width. We did only very slight damage to the windscreen in the end, but every bridge had to be negotiated by pulling the boat very slowly through them by hand - it was hard work.

Because of the height issue, we had to have Loki's canopy down for almost the entire canal stretch of the journey (four days in total). This is no fun when it's raining.

Canals, in general, are built for narrowboats. This includes the provision of certain facilities, particularly fuel. Narrowboats run on diesel inboard engines. If you have a petrol outboard engine, you can expect to run out of fuel eventually with little opportunity to fill up conveniently.

Forget any notions of 'Old Father Thames' being tame and calm. When the water levels are high, the river flows as fiercely as you ought to expect.

Thames lock-keepers are an interesting bunch. Most are very friendly, some less so. We found many of them to be permanently on their mobile phones - Eva thought they were exchanging information about the flow of the river, but I suspected that they were day-trading to relieve the tedium. One thing struck us most of all - all the guidebooks and manuals and instructional videos had given clear advice on using Thames locks: follow the instructions of the lock-keeper. We did not, from Oxford to Staines, encounter a single lock-keeper who ever offered any instructions of any kind - sometimes even when asked for some. I suspect things will be rather different in the summer.

Loki picked up a fair few scratches and bumps along the way, but we're pretty certain that the cost of repairing the damage will still be less than what we would have paid to have her brought down to London by road, and we got plenty of experience along the way. It seems odd, having lived on her for seven nights and eight days, to think that we will not board her again until next April. She is at home, in Penton Hook Marina, right now - and will be lifted out of the water on Wednesday, for the Winter. There's a fair amount of work to be done on her, not least being a complete overhaul of the plumbing - the kitchen sink didn't drain and the shower pump didn't seem to work at all. Some minor repairs to the gel coating on the hull are needed and the windscreen may need some work, too. The engine is fine, as are the canopy and the hull. I'd quite like a new throttle control, as the one that's there at the moment requires a fair amount of effort to work. And, of course, we need to get her re-named.

We have an ambitious maiden voyage planned on Loki. She is currently moored at Braunston, near Daventry, on the Grand Union Canal. The marina there doesn't have anywhere to keep boats out of the water over winter (they mostly cater for narrowboats, and I'm guessing they can be wintered in the water). We've been told that GRP* cruisers should be wintered out of the water at least every other year - although Loki has been in the water for the last three years and, according to the surveyor, hasn't come to any obvious harm.

Anyway, we need to get Loki to her new home at Penton Hook, near Chertsey, to get her lifted out. Our original plan was to do this in the second week of November, but we then discovered that a lot of the locks on the Thames are closed after 1 November for winter maintenance, so we start our trip this coming Saturday instead.

There are two ways of doing the journey. Option A is to take the Oxford Canal down to Oxford and then down the Thames to Penton Hook. Option B is to take the Grand Union Canal to Brentford and go up the Thames from there. Option B involves navigating a short stretch of tidal Thames, which has to be timed carefully as access is only possible around high tide. It also involves about 40 more locks than option A, and a couple of long, scary tunnels too. Given that this is going to be our first trip of any length on any kind of boat, we don't see the point in making our lives any more difficult. The Oxford Canal it is.

We've been planning carefully. The excellent Canalplan AC route planner tells me that the journey involves 135.37 miles (47.24 miles of narrow canal, 5.50 miles of broad canal, 3.50 miles of small river, 79.12 miles of large river); 67 locks (38 narrow locks, 2 broad locks, 27 large locks); 21 moveable bridges (of which 16 are usually left open); and 3 small aqueducts or underbridges. One bridge causes me concern. Yarnton Bridge in Kidlington, just north of Oxford, has 6'6" of headroom. The official specification of the Viking 26 says its height above water is 6'8". I've been on various messageboards and discussion forums and established that, if we drop both the canopy and the windscreen (and fill the water tank to add a little extra weight) we should be ok. I hope so - by the time we get there, it'll be too late to turn around and try option B again.

I'd also be a lot happier if the weather forecast didn't promise rain for the entire week.


*Glass-reinforced plastic - boating jargon for fibre-glass, apparently