Lockdown day 67 - Rediscover this day, May 28th 2012

Do you remember what you were doing on that day? Perhaps Google Photos has told you, too. It told me that we were on our way down to Braunston, where Roy of Days Afloat was to remodel our shower-room/toilet. Kantara was there for five weeks, so these photos cover the entire return trip. 

First stop, Watford Locks. We can't go anywhere without descending either this flight or Foxton.

Lunch break at the bottom.

A genuine, untouched reflection of the sky.

Bridge 100 on the Oxford canal just up from Roy's Braunston workshop.

And this is where Kantara is to stay for the duration...

...just a stone's throw from the junction with the Oxford Canal.

Then, five weeks later, we leave...

...with a fabulous new shower-room. (This is the only photo I took. We had a lot more than that done, but narrowboat shower-rooms are rather small for photo-taking!)

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Five on a boat to Oxford - part 8

Friday awoke as a beautiful morning, almost cloudless under a bright sun. The peace of the canal and the surrounding farmland was almost tangible. We cast off and made our way to Napton Top Lock, aka Marston Doles. Unsurprisingly, we joined a queue. Christine and I went down to the lock to see if we could lend a hand or four. We could, and we gently hastened the passage of a couple of other boats before bringing Kantara in.

As we approached the next lock, something was not quite right. The queue here was longer than the one we'd joined at Top Lock. Being really clever people, we figured out that there must have been a problem. We went to investigate. There was a boat in the chamber, descending very slowly. People were gathered at the bottom gates, so we joined them. Faces were glum.

The problem was that one of the bottom gate paddles didn't work at all. The other one worked just enough to open six inches. And, needless to say, the top gates had the usual leaks, so emptying the lock was going to slow everyone. Fifteen minutes per boat, it turned out. OK, we weren't in a hurry, but the hirers were; they had time pressures that we didn't.

And so we carried on down the flight, a favourite one of mine, the crews of each boat working with those in front or behind so that we all made good time.

We stopped at the bottom for services and shopping as the rest of the convoy made its way past. There was mooring space for us just around the corner, so we pulled over there for much-needed refreshment. The shop that says it's "Open every day" (except Tuesday) was now found to be "Open every day" (except Tuesday and Friday).

We had hoped to moor overnight at Braunston, though there's always a chance that there will be no available space, but that hope was thwarted by the two extremely slow hire-boats we caught up with very soon after we left Napton. Neither one of them stopped to let us pass, though I suppose they wouldn't know we wanted to pass unless we did the boat equivalent of bumper-hugging, and we don't like to do that because we feel it's ill-mannered. So we dawdled our way through the rest of the afternoon, having plenty of time to enjoy the scenery, and finally we stopped at bridge 100 to moor for the night. We just couldn't take any more!

The Oxford is truly a beautiful canal.

Five on a boat to Oxford - part 2

Monday was slow - very slow! But then, we weren't in any kind of hurry, unlike the numerous hire-boaters we spent our time with, all of whom had schedules to keep to, bases to be back to by a certain time on a particular day. Our schedule was vague. Christine and Mike had to be back at Yelvertoft by the 24th, to drive back to Torquay the following day, to return to work on the Monday. We were in no hurry to get anywhere in particular; we'd wind somewhere around Thrupp, we reckoned.

So, there was a lot of traffic that day. Braunston Tunnel was busy, and the Locks were hard work inasmuch as they involved a good deal of helping some rather novice boaters ahead of us and behind us. Oh, and sharing locks with us. Our three visitors are fairly experienced, so, with Grace at the tiller, we were able to lend a hand or six to others. That's always usually fun, and it's good to meet other boaters. One surprise was the encounter with a hopeful who was trying to turn his boat in the width of the canal ("I've done it before lots of times!"), got it jammed and needed the assistance of three of us to get him free. He didn't even look embarrassed.

We moored above Bottom Lock for lunch, and watched the crowd of boats behind us slowly disperse before moving on to Braunston Turn, where we turned left towards Oxford. We moored for the night below Bridge 100 just before the weather turned stormy.

And it poured for much of the night, but we awoke on Tuesday under a much more peaceful sky.

So on we went, with fewer boats on the move, the canal delightful as always, the colours of the trees amazing, the fields dotted with sheep and cows, many of them still quite young. Passing Napton Junction aka Wigrams Turn, and arriving at Napton Bottom Lock. Here, we took on water, and Christine and Mike went shopping. The very convenient shop nearby - "Open every day" - was closed. A vollie at the locks suggested the sign should read "Open sometimes". Fortunately, Mike found a local Post Office that sold the bread and milk we needed.

It was at Napton Locks that we caught up with several of the hire-boats. These locks are single-width, so our ascent was again slowed by the learner drivers and the learner lock-wheelers, all doing their best, but clearly not well-tutored by the hire companies who had taken their money in exchange for the experience. No problem, though. It was fun, helping out.

Looking back at Bottom Lock

Around 100-head of Water Buffalo

We moored north of Priors Hardwick Bridge. The wind was whipping up - our share of storm Aileen - but we were well sheltered by the hedgerow, and we spent a peaceful evening and night there.