Powered Boating Along The Middle Thames

Steven Miles, 33, tells us about cruising on his power boat from Abingdon to Clifton.

What did you do on your trip to the river?

I took my narrowboat and a friend down the river. I moor my boat at Abingdon Marina, I have to pass through Culham and Clifton lock to get to the The Barley Mow public house, at Clifton Hampden Bridge. This is the pub made famous by Jerome K Jerome in Three Men in a Boat. I spend a lot of time looking at the wildlife, every so often you see a flash of electric blue as a kingfisher dances just above the water. There is a variety of wild fowl such as ducks, grebes and cormorants. The cormorants spend a lot of time basking in the sun with their wings out.

What did you like best about it, did everything go to plan?

I love looking at the changing countryside and the wildlife you are surrounded by fields with out any main roads or housing, but every so often you are reminded how close it is, as you see a train going over Appleford Railway bridge or the steam rising from the cooling towers at Didcot power station. Some times it takes longer than you think as you are lost in looking at all the wildlife.

What did you like least, did anything go wrong or was not as you'd expected?

The only problem we had was squeezing into the moorings just above the bridge as a few people had the same idea as I did!

Did you use any businesses during your trip? What did you think of them?

We went out for lunch. We sat in the beer garden of the The Barley Mow pub and had a very nice meal with a couple of pints of beer.