Wednesday 12 September 2012 Hillmorton

We left our moorings at 1040 hrs. and headed off towards Braunston. A hire boat followed us into the tunnel and soon came up behind us at the locks so we worked down together. We met a few boats in the flight but had to turn a couple of locks. We stopped for water in Braunston and met up with some old friends before heading off up the North Oxford passing Draco on the way.

Work is on going on the two bridges that were on the verge of falling down with the foundations being underpinned they should be good for a few more years.
There are quite a few boats in the new Barby Marian at the beginning of Barby Straight but still no sign of any buildings. We were heading to the Bistro at Hillmorton but unfortunately they were not open tonight so I winded in the flight and headed back up to The Royal Oak for the night.
One of the middle locks of the Hillmorton flight is closed for repair and its partner is leaking very badly from the top gates, in the time it took for us to go from closing the bottom gates to winding the top paddles it had made about an inch. 
The moorings outside the Old Royal Oak are marked “Private” but the name Blue Haven Marina has been removed so I enquired in the pub if we would be OK moored here for the night and received a positive reply. Since we have been here we have had 3mm of rain, so we stopped none to soon.The food in the Old Royal Oak wasn’t bad and good value for the price, 2 courses and a pint each only came to £22 but given the choice I would rather have eaten at the Bistro.