The Upper Thames from Oxford up to Lechlade is supposed to be narrow and very overgrown, but dropping down onto it via Isis Lock and Sheepwash channel under the railway you wouldn’t know from the early section! Compared to the overgrown and narrow horizons of the canal, the Port Meadow water meadows and big sky, combined with horses at the water’s edge and occasional sightings of a Little Egrets made it seem more like the Carmargue!

However, once past the Duke’s Cut junction (going back onto the Oxford Canal at Wolvercote) and past Godstow, it all changes. Lunch at King’s Lock was spent in the company of a surprisingly tame heron with a limp: one of his legs looks different to the other.

And of course, you get bigger boats on the river too – even if Osney Bridge downstream is too low for most of them. Folding wheel-houses come in handy…