Logistics

Today we are moving off toward Oxford. One of the crew has appointments in Oxford over the next few days. To get them there and back each day by public transport will not be impossible but as we don't know where we will be (exactly) each night, getting near enough to bus stops will be difficult and checking out bus times will be almost impossible. We have decided to get the car. Of course, we can't carry the car on the boat. We therefore have to do a bit of car and boat hopping.

This reminds us of the time we spent getting the boat to the Banbury Area in 2004. We needed to get the children to school in Banbury each morning, collect them each afternoon and move the boat nearer to Banbury from its original mooring at Ivinghoe on the Grand Union each day. We also had to fit in things like shopping and eating! But we did it. It included walking over the top of Braunston Tunnel when our car was one side and the boat the other; taxi from Folly Pie Pub to Brauston when all the roads of Napton were being resurfaced and the taxi driver couldn't find the pub either; walking from the Wharf at Fenny Compton to meet the boat at Wormleighton and from Claydon locks to Fenny Compton to do the same and cycling the tow path between Cropredy and Banbury was soon to become a regular event.

All that is history but helped us to understand that where there is a will there is a way. We knew we needed to be in Banbury, and made sure we were at the right times!

This week though it isn't so easy. The recent knee surgery and present discomfort makes cycling impossible and walking any distance very difficult. The logistics of this trip are needing even more careful planning. As the Oxford canal takes the scenic contours of the Cherwell valley and over the last 200 years the roads have been straightened and villages bypassed, by buses as well as cars, we are puzzling as to the best way back for the car. I think I am favouring rail from Heyford Station as I am not at all sure that we will be able to get as far as Thrupp in one day in order to get a bus.

Maybe, I'll be able to tell you more how our target of being on the boat and near the car works out. Of course, we will also have to do it all again the other way!