Ducks come through Bridge 203

This nice duck formation provided an excuse for me to photograph Bridge 203 on the Oxford canal. I hope that the ripples are still visible in the small photograph.

Regular readers (viewers?) will know that I have presented photographs of several of these bridges on Blipfoto. For example, my entry for 24 September 2011 describes some of them, and provides a link to a site about the canal and its bridges, while my entry for 28 September 2011 gives a link to a useful list of pubs near the canal.

Today, we joined the towpath at Allen's Lock by Upper Heyford, passing over Bridge #204, and walked along to Somerton Mill Bridge (Bridge #199), where we crossed the canal and then the railway at a level crossing, meeting the road up the hill, and then walking back to Upper Heyford, where we enjoyed some good beer at a local hostelry: much needed after about three hours of walking.

What a lot of things to look at we found along the way! Aeroplanes, trains, walkers, cyclists complemented the longboats as means of moving. Many people on the canal boats appeared to be having enjoyable holidays, although their rate of progress was almost as slow as ours because of the traffic jams at the locks. At one point, we passed beneath the railway, and then were on the ridge of land between the canal and the River Cherwell. We found dragonflies, moths and butterflies, fine old trees, blackberries just about ripe enough to eat.

A good, but surprisingly tiring, afternoon out.