Surprisngly it was open at 8am on a Sunday morning and quite busy.
We took the same alleyway from the hotel back to the canal as we arrived by yesterday. However there was no football match on and access to the ground was much easier.
Shiel dressed for wet weather but we didn't get any appreciable rain until we were arriving in Oxford.
After the Kidlington Locks we passed bicycles dragged up from the canal, probably by 'magnet fishermen' just before we entered an area of "giant rhubarb.'
We passed the first tiltbridge of the day just before the entrance to Dukes Cut, a right turn, under the footbridge in the second photograph below.
Dukes Cut leads to the river Thames and below is a photograph taken along the cut and looking back towards Shiel on the bridge we took towards Oxford.
The traffic noise started to increase as we headed under the A34 toward Oxford.
Entering Oxford the towpath route was one of contrasts. We passed moored boats, some at permanent moorings. Some boats and moorings were smart and tidy, others just the reverse. There was quite a bit of activity on the towpath, mainly joggers and dog walkers but also the odd cyclist.
Nearer the centre an anti-graffiti project was underway. An artist had been employed to decorate under some of the bridges and the results, as well as being attractive, seemed to be deterring the less gifted amateur artists from applying their decoration.
There was plenty of greenery, even well into central Oxford and even the urban development (hospital?) had a clean, elegant feel about it.
After 10km and two and a half hours of walking we reached the last bridge over the canal in central Oxford. The path over the bridge leads to the end of the canal, the canal under it joins the river Thames by a lock system.
It had just started to drizzle enough that I had to put on my waterproof jacket.
Once over the bridge the towpath maintained its rural feel right up to when the canal came to a dead end.