Toward Coventry

From Bridge 79, our overnight mooring on the North Oxford Canal. we set off in reasonable sunshine to stop at Bridge 73. This allowed time for the engine to heat the water in the calorifier so that we could all have a shower and also an opportubity to cook a breakfast. Reasearch on the internet (what did we do without it?)indicated that this was the nearest point on the canal top an Aldi which was neatly connected by the Stagecoach bus 96, an hourly service between Rugby and Northampton.

So it was also a good place to stop for shopping.

After his breakfast bacon sandwich and bowl of chocopops, Pooh Bear decided that he didn't feel too well and put himself back to bed. The family shopping trip was now reduced to a solo forray by yours truly. Equipped with rumble truck and tesco big bags I set off. Infact, I waked there and back helped by a short cut through a park that was pointed out by a local young Mum who was pushing her sleeping baby and dragging her other youngster that way.

After a successful trip, I returned to helo a hire boat who was pulled off his pins next to our boat by a passing boater. I demonstratee the art of mooring on 'the wrong sort of piling' using rope loops that had been left by a previous moorer. This is much more secure than a mooring stake, however deep it is hallered. The baots just don't seem to go as slow as they should.

Hilmorton locks were worked down in the pleasant company of Robert Anne Spog Dog and Ko who were behind us for quite a while. They were keeping a close eye on the clouds because they don't do boating in the rain.

A bit more cruising was unsertaken befoer a lunch break opposite Clifton Wharf where passing boats entertained us with their antics just before the bridge. Antics actually became a collision just before we left and I was thankful to have already slipped the moorings to be able to reverse as fast as I could to avoid us being the next target.

We continued to Newbold where we have moored at the end of the long term mooring as the remainder of the visitor moorings are full. There are three hire companies in this locality and I think all of them turn round on Saturday. It must be like this every Friday evening. It has started to rain so I don't see why we should go any further to find an alternative. I do pay for a mooring after all! These moorings, like those on which I moor in Banbury, have had space on them all the time I have been in this area. We passed this way in Summer 2003 on a hire boat and I spoke to a long term moorer then while waiting for friends to lunch at the pub. He said he had never known them full. I wonder whether BW really know the length they have to offer! There have been auctions recently and sold two mooring cheaply at the strt of this year. The last auction didn't get a bid for a 10m mooring but I don't think that they have ever advertised the whole vacant length.