An early alarm call - with reason

Tuesday, 25 October 2011 08:39

Dorchester was only a 15 minute walk away from our mooring above Day's Lock, but the river feels isolated and it was very quiet once the walkers and children had gone home.

Dorchester Abbey

We had a good night but were woken by a loud alarm ......

We noticed the herd of white cows last night - they roam free on this lovely spot by the Dyke Hills near Dorchester. At 7.25 one of them bellowed at us right by our bedroom porthole, "Wake up and look at this" - well, she did so in cow language of course!

What a sunrise

We love this mooring and wished we could stay longer but, as we would like to be further upstream over the weekend (Abingdon first for a few days) and then make for Oxford to meet a friend, it was time to leave.

It was a cattle morning - 

White cattle on the west bank too

They come right down to the river, even the calves

These had rather rougher coats, but isn't the brown calf sweet?

A bit further upstream along this isolated curve of a flood plain of River Thames the cattle changed colour - 

Black herd 

Once again the red kites keep a bird's eye view on us all - this one began to fly away as I got the camera out! But I do so love these magnificent birds.

Soaring red kite

By now, Burcot was on our right on the north bank - the river takes an extravagant bend, turning 180 degrees, as it nears Clifton Hampden. Burcot may well have been the highest that large cargoes could reach on the river as the bedrock above here is solid and could not be dredged. It no longer has a wharf and the back gardens of the Burcot houses reach down to the riverside. 

End of garden moorings at Burcot

You can probably see from the photo below how blustery it was today - but still the sun shone

Windy willows at Burcot

We continued our way upstream to Clifton Hampden and Clifton Lock, but more about this later ....