Next door left quite early this morning well before we were up. The sun was streaming in and we took Magic for a walk along the Thames path opposite the pub. It must be dog muck heaven, I cleared up 10 lots in the first 100 Mt's from the road access and none of it was there when we walked by yesterday tea time.
We were back on the boat a little after 10 30 and on our way upstream. The first lock we came to was actually “Self Service” as the lock keeper was sanding down and recoating the beams, unfortunately he had forgotten to turn the self service sign so he 
helped us through with both Diana and him working paddles and gates.
They are rebuilding the weir at Radcot Lock and have some serious lifting equipment on site including two large cranes.
Further on at Radcot there was a male swan with the ends of his wing feathers well worn protecting his territory from a young cob. He chased him round pecking at him but didn’t drive him off completely, once he turned back down stream he seamed happy and things settled down again, we also saw several Curlews with their plaintive call. They were sitting out in the grass until we 
passed by and then would jump and fly up the river. The other thing we saw were several bulls, the first was in a field by himself laying under a tree by the river, I think he was probably one of the largest bulls I have ever seen, the others were all with herds of cows.
We pulled in for water just above Grafton Lock and it would seem
that the EA or probable the NRA as it was then, had more shackles than they knew what to do with so they welded two to every length of piling to support a safety chain.
We continued on winding at the head of Navigation where we expected to see a big notice saying “Entrance to the Thames and Severn” but there is nothing which when you consider that IWA are having a big campaign to pay for the restoration of Inglesham Lock that would have something to show boaters and their members where it is.
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