Jean's Trip to Tumbling Bay

On arrival at Watershed Glynn proceeded to open the scout shed roller door - crash - it fell apart. He rushed home to acquire some tools to fix it but Dave arrived in the meantime and dismantled the shutter enough to gain access.

An assortment of boats was chosen for the trip, as the photos show, including the Scooter sit on top, Bic double sit on top, Toppo Duo, open canoe and loads of kayaks. There were 18 paddlers, the youngest was only three years old, who received the coveted (and much sought and struggled to acquire) Pink Turtle from the Friday 31 July Mystery Tour, and the oldest was Glynn (hmmm).

Arriving at Osney Lock we were invited by the very friendly lock keeper to ride up in the lock. We sneaked in behind the barge and the Environment Officers in their boat. Arriving at Tumbling Bay we decided to stop for a bite to eat whilst the young and old children played on the weir and in the pool.

A rumbling tummy was noticed, as the ground shook, because their meal didn't turn up on time but some emergency food was available and gratefully received by one paddler.

After most of us getting very wet we set off over the weir at the end of Tumbling Bay, navigating over the rocky parts of the Bulstake Stream. A team of adventurers approached us asking where the stream went. They were on another loop going from The Trout down the Thames along Bulstake Stream up Botley onto Seacourt Stream down the Thames and back to the Trout. A nice loop, though I wouldn't like to do it when the river is running!

En route a tiger shark was found, to the delight of Tom, but maybe not to the delight of Mike, Tom's dad, who paddled on mutter - mutter - mutter. Arriving back at the Watershed we were fairly worn out, some more than others, as seen on the last photo of the day.

Well done Jean and thanks for a great trip.

- Glynn

Glynns photos