Well another night of rain and not much better today. We set off in fine but heavy drizzle, the stuff that gets in everywhere but at Slats Mill lock it had stopped and stayed reasonably dry until Banbury. We passed this boat with a rather impressive rain cover on the exhaust pipe, but my painted coffee can to shame.
At Bourton Lock we had a chat with the owner of the lock cottage, I met him out boating several years ago. and then on to Hardwick Lock which like Bourton lock was also full, strange as there was a shared ownership boat going down about an hour ahead of us and we hadn’t met anyone. I suspect the water is over topping these gates as well as the by-washes looked a bit stuffed.
Our original plan had been to go into Banbury town centre for the night but there is a tree down at bridge 163 so we winded just before that at the junction of the old line of the canal before retracing our steps for a bit. The donkeys have gone from the piece of land by footbridge 161 where the stream comes in, its now all mown with moored boats and even a BBQ. O and even a hippopotamus.
We carried on just round the bend and tucked in the space behind the shared ownership boat that came down earlier, they have also turned round so I expect we will follow them up tomorrow. I hope its not a sign of things to come but they have been running the engine since Just after lunch. As we came into Banbury it started raining real rain and that’s been going on and off ever since we have been here.
Just a reminder there is a Google map of the whole journey HERE its the blue track
Today’s Journey4½miles, 3 locks in 2 hours
No comments:
Post a Comment