Mink, Kingfisher and lots of Red Kites

We have seen a variety of wildlife over the last few days, two kingfishers, a mink swimming along and an abundance of red kites.  Other than the odd lucky photo of a kite, we have no other photos!
We travelled from Godstowe Abbey (no ghost), through Oxford, past all the boat houses, some very old and some new modern buildings, through to Abingdon where we moored by the open air swimming pool.

From Abingdon we travelled to Wallingford and today shower dodging (not very well) we made a short hop to Goring.

The houses are getting bigger, the boat houses at the bottom of the gardens would do me and the cruisers and trip boats are getting bigger!

We have been wandering around the lovely villages/towns, but unfortunately like most of the country the recession has hit this area as well. 

We had a bit of a misdemeanour yesterday around Shillingford, whilst admiring the lovely houses we went the right side of the marker buoy but managed to get well and truly stuck on a gravel/sand bank, tipping Triskaideka sideways.  John eventually managed to get us off with a bit of rocking and bow thruster use along with some reverse and forward, and me dangling over the front, fortunately nothing broken although most drawers open by the time we were free.  Dave and Angie came back to help but just as they came around the bend we got off.

The internet signal has been poor over the last few days and downloading photo's has been nearly impossible, so please forgive the quality.

Godstowe Abbey to Wallingford 12 miles 5 locks
Wallingford to Abingdon 12 miles 4 locks
Abingdon to Goring 6 miles 2 locks