"What a beautiful and peaceful scenery it is! I didn't imagine that Oxford city had such a place." When I walked in the city center of Oxford, I felt something cold and cramped due to the existence of the old rock walls and pavement. This feeling might be caused by my Japanese genes. However, the atmosphere around the canals was totally different from those old artificial cold surfaces. According to my later research, the length of the total canals in the U.K. is up to a few thousand miles. The U.K. might be called the land of the canals. When I posted the last entry, I didn't know how to call the boats running up and down on the canals. They are apparently called narrow boats. I got it, just expressing their shapes. While jogging, I often stopped and took snapshots. I'll arrange them and add some descriptions to them.
I started jogging from Hythe Bridge and reached Isis Lock as I saw yesterday. I took a left turn there and found a railroad heritage site which strongly attracted me. I decided to drop in at the site on the return leg, and went ahead on its underpass. Then I reached the place where the Thames was a little widened. It's the first picture below. I took it as a reservoir formed by a lock, but it was just the place the Thames widened. After 20 minutes of jogging, I found myself at the tip of the towhead. There were several swans and some of them were brown, which would still be babies. According to my later research, they were mute swans. They are apparently often seen across the U.K.
Going ahead, several narrow boats were moored in the yacht club. An angler was fishing something in the 7th picture below. While I was gazing at him, he didn't catch anything. Take a look at the backdrop. Lots of oxen were put out to pasture. I remembered the description about the origin of the name of Oxford in the memoir of Prince Naruhito. The Thames used to have a ford on which oxen could cross it around the area. That's why this area was named "Oxford". Even though Prince Naruhito was busy on a daily basis, he could have been at such peaceful places for a change.
I continued to run and reached the place which is shown in the 10th picture as a blue round spot. The just-left cocktail glass mark stands for the Perch which I visited a few days ago. Additionally, the upper cocktail glass mark shows the site of the Trout Inn. The route on which I'd run must have been the route that Prince Naruhito loved and cycled with his guard. The Prince would open the gate and go ahead. I wrote about its goal in another entry: https://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2023/07/thames-path.html
(Vocabulary)
surface 外見
leg 〔旅行の〕一つの行程◆休みを取らずに、方向や進み方が同じ旅行の区間
towhead (立木の生えた)川の中州
mute swan コブハクチョウ
put ~ out to pasture（家畜を）放牧する
pasture （家畜の）牧草地, 放牧場; 牧草
ford 浅瀬
backdrop（景色などの）背景
https://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2023/07/thames-path.html
なんとのどかで美しい景色だろうか。旧市街を歩くと周囲は全て石で囲まれており、窮屈な感じ、あるいは冷たい感じがしていた。オックスフォードにこんな場所があったとは。しかし、この運河周辺は全く異なる。帰国後調べたところ、イギリスの運河の長さは数千マイル、まさに運河の国と呼んでも良いのでは？先の投稿時には知らなかったのだが、運河を航行するボートをその形の通りナローボートと呼ぶらしい。ジョギング中、たびたび立ち止まって景色を写真に収めたので、順に並べて説明していく。
昨日同様にHythe Bridgeからジョギングを開始した。走り出してIsis Lockまで昨日と同じルートを走り、左手に折れた。古い鉄道の跡があったが、これは帰りにじっくり見るとして線路の下をくぐり進むとテムズ川の川幅が少し広くなったところへ出た。これを北へ曲がり北上。１枚目の写真がテムズ川の広くなっている場所。閘門に繋がるリザーバーかと思ったが、単に川幅が広くなっているだけだった。北へ向かって走ると中州の先端のような場所に出た。なんと、白鳥が居た。成長した雛とともに。どうやら家族だ。後日調べると、Mute Swan（コブハクチョウ）らしい。イギリスのほぼ全域に１年中見られるらしい。
更に進むと、ナローボートが何隻も係留されていて、ヨットクラブまであった。７枚目の写真では釣り人がいる。その向こうを見て欲しい。牛が放牧されている。そういえば、陛下の留学記に、オックスフォードは牛が渡ることの出来る瀬があるということから名付けられたと書かれていた。陛下は日頃研究で忙しくても、週末に自転車なら２０分ほどでこんな風景が拡がっている。気分転換には最適な場所だ。
景色に感動しながら走り、１０枚目の写真の場所へ来た。この場所はどこかというと、最後の地図を見てください。 右下の青い丸が僕のいる位置、すぐ左にあるカクテルグラスのマークは先日立ち寄ったパブPerchの場所を示しています。そして、上の方にあるカクテルグラスのマークはTrout Innの位置を示しています。僕がジョギングしてきたこのルートは、陛下が警護官と一緒に自転車でパブをハシゴされたルートに間違いない。陛下はこのゲートを開けて走って行かれたに違いない。そしてそのゴールは先日の記事に書いた。
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