Shillingford

With Gemma and Sam as crew we left at 08:00.  The Thames Lock-Keepers come on duty at 09:00, but as Osney Lock has power out of hours we were soon through and on our way.   At the next lock, the lockie was also not on duty, but had turned the power on for us, so no problem there.   At Abingdon Lock we were signalled to enter alongside a large trip boat,but it was obvious we would not squeeze in and had to back out much to the embarrasment of the lock-keeper who explained that he was a relief lock-keeper and had to keep a lot of figures in his head.   Abingdon was busy, but we were not planning to stop there.  We had lunch on the move and as it was such a beautiful warm day decided to stop early at Shilingford on a bank mooring above the bridge where there was some grass and an option of setting up a barbeque.  As it happened it was so pleasant that we set the gazebo up as well, so did the whole thing in style.