Below Banbury

Last night we ate at the Brasenose Arms with my daughter and her family. A very early meal for us but what a friendly welcoming crowd the staff are at the pub, made us feel really welcome, in fact my daughter said “you must come here a lot to get that treatment”.

This morning by 10 AM all the boats around us had left so I started the engine and as Diana was about to release the front rope a boat came round the bend behind us. We followed them down to the lock as we planned to stop at the services to dump our rubbish. There were a few canoeists around but I expected more on a Sunday morning. We caught up with the boat ahead at Slat Mill lock and he indicated there was a boat coming upstream, this turned out to be the case at most of the lock. The pound between Slat Mills and Bourton is very shallow and meeting a boat was a trip in the mud, it was even slower than the summit and only 150mm off weir. Little Bourton looks as if the cill has blown and water coming in under it, which wont help the level in the pound above.

We carried on into Banbury passing this moored boat on the way, it seems to have a fine collection of maimed manikins.

Its the first time we have boated through Banbury since the redevelopment, with boats moored both sides we had to wait for a boat struggling not to hit any coming towards us, when we set off we found out why he was having the problems, its like navigating down a wind tunnel. We stopped for lunch below Banbury lock opposite what I remember as a foundry, but the yard today is full of scrap cars, so I guess that’s closed down. After lunch Diana did a quick trip to Morrison’s before we wet off to moor for the night between the two lift bridges. Not the quietest spot on the canal but over the next mile it just gets worse.
The weather, 24 hours ago I set off with my dungarees and a tee shirt, today I have added both a jumper and a fleece.

 

Today’s Journey

6 miles with 5 locks in 4 hours