Oxford Canal:Isis Lock (Oxford)

OK!  The plan today was to get into position to me able to meet Kai from the Oxford Railway Station on Friday evening.  The closest mooring to the station is East Street.  First, however, we found yesterday afternoon that we needed a pumpout.  I had investigated the machine at the Thrupp Service point and found that it needed a token.  There was information mentioning that this could be obtained from the Warden but it was after his duty hours. There was a phone number so I called and the warden very kindly agreed to meet me and sold me the token £15.  As we would need to reverse back through the lifting bridge I thought it wisest to leave this until this morning, then get the pumpout early and leave for Oxford straightaway.  The boat reversed very easily and lined up nicely for the bridge hole.  Job done!  Next was the need for a small grocery shop.   Pat and I had needed this before and I remembered the small Co-op shop on the outskirts of Kidlington and easily acccessible fro the road which adjoins the canal past the Jolly Boatman pub at a small wharf (with 2 day moorings).  There was a space and shopping was quickly done.  Next was to investigate East Street moorings.  It’s three locks to the Duke’s Cut turning and always seems to take an age.  Below Duke’s Lock there was a melee of boats waiting to come up including a Braidbar “The Shouting End” which was initially blocking the bridge hole to the cut.  However, once we had vacated the lock and one boat was able to move, the problem for us disappeared.  Lots of moored boats in the cut.  Kings Lock was on self service as was Godstow.  East Road moorings were full, so we went down Osney Lock (manned) and continued, to turn on the wide river after the Salters Landing noticing no likeyhood of mooring there either.   Disappointed we returned.  The lock-keeper said that a few boats had come off the mooring first thing, so I guess that is the best time to find a mooring there.  Plan B was to look at the canal moorings above Isis Lock.   There appeared to be a space right at the front of the line of moored boats on the designated rings moorings, but we couldn’t get a front mooring pin in, so had to continue up the line to the end where, in the absence of any information to the contrary got some mooring pins in and staked our claim.  Exploring found that it is an easy 10 minute walk to the station and we are in poll position for an early start for Lower Heyford on Saturday, so not at all bad in the end.