IIWhat a better day, the sun shinining but the wind is keen, but a lot better than yesterday, so we break our mooring and off we set pass the keen young Oxford rowers out training in their different water crafts.
We pass all the different colleges rowing club buildings before we meet our first lock named Iffley normally the locks are manned with lockeepers, but this one I'd lockeepers free, so Denise must operate it, but they are a breeze because they are controlled by buttons which make them easy.
The pretty Iffley lock keepers house .
And onwards down the Thames we travel into suburbia with houses priced out of most people's salary, with there manicured gardens rolling to the edge of the river.loads of wild birds grace the banksides, and one stands out more than the rest, the Red Kite
and there seems loads here. We then pass Abingdon a lovely village, but today we don't stop to have a look around, but we have a quick stop for water.
We go through a few more manned locks the river is so much different to the canals with plenty to see and keep you interested, with rowers , other Narrowboats, birds and posh houses, the river goes from open countryside to villages dotted around the river.
We then moor up for the night at Wallingford a town that dates back to Caesars time, but morey recently Agatha Christie use to reside here, which gave her inspiration for her Miss Marple series, also the television series Midsomer Murders were filmed here.
A few ghost stories
Wallingford
The ‘George’ Inn is a very ancient pub with many a story to tell. The best known is that surrounding the so-called ‘Tear-Drop Room’. This guest-bedroom is has a wall hand decorated all over with what are either tears or pears. It is said they were painted by a distraught landlord’s daughter who had been confined in the room for her own safety. The poor girl had gone completely round the bend, upon hearing of the murder of her lover. She apparently mixed soot from the fireplace with her tears and used her finger to draw the only shape she could think of on the wall. One hotel guest was woken in the night by a very life-like young woman with tears streaming down her face. She turned and disappeared into the tear-drop wall. The witness had no prior knowledge of the old story.
In Room 5 at the same inn, several guests are reported to have seen the ghosts of two young children standing by the Wash Basin.
The cellars have also produced the phenomenon known as ‘instant replay’ or ‘delayed echo’. After having replaced all the bungs in the beer-barrels one night, the barman locked the cellar door, only to hear, from the other side, the sound of the bungs being tapped again.
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