As the weather was set fair we decided to take a day trip. 

Our expected crew of son and two grandchildren could not come but Alex decided to come along. We were glad of his enthusiasm as the temoeratures soared.

We let go at 1030h and stopped at the Castle Quay water point for a top up and a quick wipe down. Willow mast makes a mess. Getting inot the basin was interesting this morning. A boat's crew had already lifted the bridge but the boat master decided he did not want to exercise his priority and waved us forward. He backed toward a Naotin hire craft that was against the wall between the water point and the lock. I managed to avoid the congestion and neatly took up staion at teh water point and moored leaving the others to sort themselves out. 

After watering we drigfted over to the bridge landing to wait for the Best Mate. She joined us shortly bit not before another confised boater had entered the basin. We assured him we would let him go first . There was plenty of llock usage, up and down, and the wait was monimal. Plenty of gongoozlers too!

We moored just short of Samuelson Brisge to get provisions from Morrisons and having done that we sat down for a sald lunch.

After lunch we set off to The Pig Place. This is at Nell Bridge and we enjoyed a wonderful event free cruise in glorious sunshine. 

On the way we passed several moored boats whose crews were enjoying the sunshine under umbrellas and on the towpath. There is little room on an Oxford Canal towpath these days. The Best MAte asked me to look for a spot where we could stop for a cup of tea. There were no real opportunities. There were so many boats out today and most were sensibly mooried against the midday sun. We continued as "mad dogs" do!". At Kings Sutton Lock (Also apparently known as Tarvers Lock according to the signage) a single handed lady was deep insode when we arrived. It looked for all appearances that the lock was empty. I had forgotten how deep it is. The brave little lady opened the bottiom gate and proveeded to descend the ladder to her boats roof before dropping to her trad stern. She was so diminuative that she had a folding stepup and a box to stand on so that she could see over the roof of the boat!

We coversed with a Kings Ground boat  as we passed and I met with the lady of the crew again int he afternoon for a chat. Although KG are Oxford Canal based this couple had moved away to be nearer their home in Suffolk and this was a bit of a homecoming for them and the boat. 

The Pig PLace was popular and all the moorings were taken and one boat was breasted up. We turned at Nell Bridge winding hole and moored up just past the pold lift bridge narrows for thew promised cuppa. The single handed lady was taken by the Pig Place but could not see a way to get there. We told her she would need to go onto the main road from the lock and come back down the drive. We decided we did not want the walk in the heat.

 

After tea we decided to return the way we had come. 

I needed some excersise and decided to walk from Tarvers Lock to Twyford Bridge. It was along this section that I nmet the KG Crew again. Our conversation included discussion of the KG logo on the boat and whether the new CRT T & C's would mean they need express consent to leave it there! They said they had not had any advicer or ntice obout hte consultation on the new terms. It was nice to discover that they were NABO members.

I had to walk quite quickly to get ahead of SOnflower top re-board at Twyford bridge but I managed it and here is proof!

Alex is gently bringing her along side the bridge narrows so that I can hop back on. 

We stopped aftger Grants lock to cookl a steak dinner and two enjoy a bottle of Beaujolais. A delightful summer treat.

After dinner all that was reqwuired was to cruise gently back. We stopped at Banksoide Park narrows to recover a football for a group of lads and left them happily practising their moves ahead of the next day's England game.

Back at the hime mooring I met James, a cafe boat trader who was paniocking as sunset arrived. I suggested that he overnoght on the vacant berth inform=nt of Sonflowere and had a nice chat with him. He had come up the Thames from the K & A and a cruise from Bathhampton.He too had stopped at The Pig Place. He had boght a couple of pork chops and some pig's ears for his two whippets!Expensive tast these dogs! He is vegetarian!

So the end to a beautiful day.

The Best Mate was sunburnt!

Mooring Prices RIsing

Recession or not it appears that mooring prics continue to rise.

The auction has just closed for a mooring on our site. The highest bid received was £2151 against a guide price of £1650. A similar mooring in Cropredy closed at £2050.

There are no facilities at these moorings. Water is half a mile away. All we have are rings to tie to, and they are in the wrong place for the length of our boat!

It is all about supply and demand even in a recession. Those who can afford it will always outbid those who can't.

Walk it off!

"The canals are generally seen as a relaxing place to be, and a week’s boating holiday an ideal opportunity to chill out and leave the cares of the world behind you. However, what few people realise is that boating can boost your fitness levels, develop your arm muscles (lockwinding) and tone your legs (walking to the next lock)." Waterscape.com

However, how do you get that exercise when the towpath looks like this?

I have heard that BW have a policy to "rurally manage" some stretches of the towpath but this in is in Banbury Mooring Zone. It is also on the waymarked Banbury Fringe Circular Walk. Believe it or not there is a canal next to this path- it is on the left.

I wanted to go for a walk to exercise my replacement knee but at this point the towpath was impassable to me. The nettles are about 5 feet high and the cow parsley reaches up a good two feet taller.

"Rurally managed". Rarely managed I would say.

I spoke to the local BW patroling officer the other day. He was fed up with getting soaked by the excessive vegetation and he's paid for walking the towpaths.

Missing Things

I haven't been blogging recently because I've been laid up. I have had a minor knee operation, called an arthroscopic menicuectomy. I think I have spelt it properly. Basically, keyhole surgery to cut away a bit of torn cartledge in my knee. I didn't realise it would be quite as painful as it was and it has meant that I have had to rest a lot. One would think this would make terrific blogging time. However, as I really wanted to concentrate this blog on the canal and the boat, the fact that I haven't been able to get out of my chair even to view the boats going by hasn't encouraged me. I'm missing out on the towpath gossip.

I did struggle to the club for lunch one day this past week and had a chat to a disabled boater on Castle Quay who sympathised with my struggle on crutches. He had a wonderful display of boat brass plates, which we display to show the world where we have been. Surprisingly they hadn't been on the Thames but had been just about everywhere north of it on flat water. We were interupted by a gongoozler who wondered how he'd grown such lovely lettuces in his roof box. He pointed out that the rain falls on them as well on the canal as anywhere on the land.

Lunching in the club I met good friends who have their mooring in Cropredy. It was really great to be able to converse once more about engines batteries and toilets. It is surprising how one misses these wonderful conversation pieces when one is isolated for a little while. There is always enough in these subjects to keep us busy for a pint or two. I had missed them.

If the conversation slacks then we relax into the interminable subject of the weather: summer has left us for a while and the autumn rains are upon us.

Father's day tomorrow. My father didn't really like it because it is an American invention to make money out of another card and stamp. Mothering Sunday is very British and that was alright as Mothers Day. But fathers day didn't have the same history behind it. Still, I will miss him because it is the first year that he hasn't been able to moan about it with his "you shouldn't have bothered, really you shouldn't"

It's funny what you miss isn't it?