Sam Hooke

Canal Boat Journey (Day 4): Final push (South Stoke to Abingdon)

All trips at this location:

Somehow, we had already got further than planned. We had made it past Reading, got through 22 locks, and only had four left before Abingdon. However, today I needed to get back to Cambridge, and wanted to be at a train station for 3pm, so we only had half a day left to work with. We wasted no time in leaving early, and were underway just after 7am.

A field.
(7:00am) A view of the field we moored against near South Stoke.

This was perhaps the longest stretch without a lock. We moored next to the high street bridge in Wallingford to grab some pastries for breakfast, then carried on to (L23) Benson Lock, and after another long stretch to (L24) Day’s Lock. Then was a long, tedious gentle bend to the left which curved all the way around to Clifton Hampden.

At Clifton Hampden we picked up a couple of passengers who were joining us for the final few hours. Next up was (L25) Clifton Lock, which is at a fork in the river that leads to The Plough Inn. It would make a good day trip from Abingdon, but we needed to carry on.

A sign pointing the way to the lock.
(12:01pm) Approaching (L25) Clifton Lock.

In the cut after (L25) Clifton Lock the river was very narrow. We got a close view of some cows enjoying the refreshing river.

Four cows in the river.
(12:20pm) Cows enjoying the river.

The next stretch was tree lined on either side for a while, with a few fallen trees that created some bottlenecks, but fortunately it was fairly quiet. We went under a railway bridge and then reached the final lock: (L26) Culham Lock, which with a fall of 2.41m was the deepest lock of the journey. For context, only three locks so far had a fall greater than 2m.

The lock controls.
(1:16pm) The controls at (L26) Culham Lock.

This final also took what felt like the longest. Despite being in sensible hours, it was unmanned, there were a lot of boats going through both ways, and it took a long time for the water to fill because of the large fall. Eventually we made it out. Through another narrow cut, past some more cows, and then back on the main course of the river and we were nearly at our destination.

Trees on either side as the river curves to the left.
(2:05pm) Final corner before Abingdon.
The boat moored up at the marina.
(2:20pm) Moored up for the last time.

We moored up, I caught a lift to the train station, and managed to catch the 3:21pm for London.

That concludes the journey! Four days, 63 miles, 26 locks, from Weybridge to Abingdon.