Fenny Compton Thursday 2 Jan 2014

What a change in the weather, we woke to bright sunshine and were on the move at 10am. There was a noticeable flow on the canal this morning due to the lock bypasses flowing flat our and also a reasonable flow over the top of the lock.  The Cherwell was well in flood and the flood waters extended up to the Claydon flight with lots of water at Cropredy. I wonder if there is water behind the slice at Banbury today.

As we approached Cropredy the towing path was under water and there was a good flow coming into the canal opposite the service area. There were several canoeists enjoying the morning sun. Just after Cropredy lock two friends who moor in the new Cropredy Marina were out for a walk caught us up and we chatted all the way up to Broadmoor lock.

As we came through Cropredy on the off side there were the largest flowerpots I have ever seen, they must be over 6 foot high. I am not sure what the building is but I am guessing at some sort of plants sale.

We met about 8 boats on our travels today so nearly all the locks were with us which was good. We even saw three hire boats out which must be good for the yards concerned, one of them told us the one of the pounds in the Napton flight was dry this morning. We pulled over and looked at the levels in the Wormleighton reservoir, I never think of this as being Wormleighton but I suppose its as close to the village as the Wormleighton mast is. It looks quite full so that a good thing for next summer.

By now the wind had freshened slightly and the clouds were gathering, blocking out the sky causing the temperature to drop noticeably, but still no sign of rain than goodness.

I  have never seen so much water coming down from the railway line  at Fenny Tunnel, I shot a bit of video but can’t upload it at the moment so you will have to make do with this photograph. We have moored for the night almost outside The Wharf at Fenny, if it hadn’t have been for the water points we would have been outside.