Waterway to Enjoy a Holiday
The stretch of the Thames that runs from Oxford to London is an almost uninterrupted perfect run of weeping willow’d prettiness, unspoilt villages and top notch pubs. No better way to discover it than by plying the river in a 100-year-old rowboat with a few friends.
Jerome K. Jerome’s 120 year old book “Three Men In A Boat” describes exactly the journey that you can still undertake, even visiting the same pubs mentioned in the text, and experiencing the same shortness of temper with your friends as they don’t row as well as you do, disagree on which pub to stop in, or forget to pack an extra raincoat for you.
Boats can be rented from Skiff Hire, for the bargain price of around £150 per week per person. It’s an alarmingly simple procedure. You rent a boat, learn a little bit about how to unroll the canvas roof that protects you in case of rain, and head off. They’ll pick you up wherever you get to. We had five days, and made it to London.
Along the way, there’s no shortage of pubs–to provide everything including liquid sustenance, shelter from the inevitable rain, wifi, lunch or a bed for the night. Or you can camp. A mixture of both leaves you at the end of the week feeling like you’ve travelled to the extreme wilderness (waking up in a tent perched on the side of the river with no sign of civilization around, an otter splashing on the riverside and the blue streak of a kingfisher darting across the water. And a hangover.), via the 18th century (drinking fruity ale in a thatch-roofed pub and watching barges work the lock paddles in Wallingford) and back (Reading–what a shame). Most of the river seems totally unchanged and untouched by the passing of the centuries, and indeed the lock system dates back to the 1600s.
The trip was a revelation. I had no idea central England was still so untouched and so beautiful. I’d love to hear about similar trips, whether aquatic or literary. We’re considering Robert Louis Stevenson’s Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes next. But you can row drunker than you can ride a donkey.
Jack Dancy hails from jolly old England. Give him a shout and he can lead you to some more of his favourite spots.
