After cruising through Abingdon, admiring its gorgeous old waterfront, (I can't think of a better one) we pressed on past posh boathouses, sweeping lawns and the houses of the super rich until we reached the moorings above Day's lock (near Dorchester) that looked so inviting that we decided to stop. All the way along we have been supervised from above by red kites who looked down on us wondering if we were good enough to eat. Some came very close. We also saw three kingfishers.
After lunch on the river bank, the amiable young farmer stopped to collect our mooring charge and stayed chatting for an age. We saw pictures of his prize show cattle, he has longhorns, Belgian blues, and Herefords and often gets first prize in shows. Then we heard the tale of how the wild geese had eaten all the grass his cattle should have had on the riverside meadow (apparently three geese can eat as much grass as a cow) and how grass and hay is very short this year, and finally his scary stories of run ins with hare coursers.
The hare coursers come from far and wide (Wales even), mostly operating at night in the stubble fields where they unleash their dogs, betting large sums on which one will catch the hare. The local farmers hate them and work closely with local police to catch them when they can. Such is the dislike of this practice, the police are always ready to send up their helicopter (at great expense) to help with catching the coursers. The baddies use their 4x4s to make their escapes while the police give chase, on one occasion doing serious damage to their posh BMW police car. Sadly, even when they do catch them, the coursers don't suffer any significant punishment and so it goes on.
Some of the coursers know that the farmer is helping the police and on one occasion set fire to his straw store to warn him off.
Well it was a very entertaining chat, and we didn't begrudge the farmer his £8, especially when we were told the money is going into a fund to improve the river bank for moorers.
6 comments:
You learn me so much, Neil! I never knew Geese ate so much grass. As for the hare coursers, I'd be inclined to do serious damage to them, not just fine them. What a horrible practice!
Hi Neil, it's good to know that we can still moor there safely and we wouldn't begrudge the £8 per night as it is a lovely mooring provided that the cattle are not too close to the boat. Did you manage to walk into Dorchester from that mooring?
No cattle in the field Carol because the geese had eaten aall the grass. I'm sorry to say we were too idle to walk into Dorchester, but have been there in the past.
I asked Neil because I understood that from those moorings it was not possible to walk into Dorchester. By the way , idle is ok!
Well you do have climb over a locked gate to reach the path, but the farmer said that was ok.
We will be mooring there then next summer!
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