Day 163 and a quiet start on the canal. It is noticeable how much slower it is on this shallow canal, especially after the Thames. More boats too. J saw a buzzard perched on a pergola in someone’s garden. It was so still to start with she was had just about decided it was a very good sculpture when it moved. We passed a narrowboat called Muddy Waters, not named for the blues singer but the children’s story and appropriately decorated. Moored in the middle of nowhere, we managed to find somewhere a bit away from the railway which is quite difficult on this stretch of the canal. Lots of horses in the field the other side of the cut, including some cute young ones.

Day 164 and a busier canal from the off, a hire boat passed us as we were preparing to set off but fortunately we didn’t get delayed by them, and later passed them whilst they were watering. Another hire boat wanted to share the lozenge shaped Aynho Weir lock, we had to explain that it wasn’t really big enough for our 60ft and their 65ft boat and that they would have to wait at the next lock in any case. The river Cherwell crosses the canal on the level just above this lock; last time we came through here the river was running more strongly and it was difficult to get off the piling because of the force of the water but this time it was easy. We stopped at the farm shop above the next lock (“The Pig Place”) to buy some supplies. The water levels were quite low below Banbury; when we met another boat coming the other way we both started going aground but managed to slowly keep going until we both returned to the main channel and enough water to proceed. Were “helped” through Banbury lock by a cute lad of about five years old who is apparently fascinated by everything about locks. Close to our proposed mooring we could no longer ignore the fact that there was something on the prop. As J tried to move off after picking up D and Sue after the lift bridge in the centre of Banbury the boat didn’t go forward, just sideways and nearly collided with the day boat moored at the famous Tooley’s boat yard. Tooley’s is where the boat (Cressy) used by the man (Tom Rolt), normally credited with starting the revival of the canals after they went into serious decline after the war, was built. Anyway D had to clear the prop, the main issue was a bicycle tyre; the wire structure really wasn’t going to give up. He didn’t clear it entirely but at least we could move! Moored near the bakery (industrial) in Banbury. Went to Zushi for a sushi/sashimi fix. We found this restaurant a couple of year’s ago when we last hired a boat. We were with J’s sister Clare and Mel (both of whom have been on the boat this trip) and on discussing what we fancied eating Mel said she would like some sushi. Clare said she knew a really good place in Banbury (completely making this up) and Mel got all excited, we then found that there was a Japanese restaurant in Banbury and actually it is really quite good – who knew? We didn’t then but we do now. Sue’s first trip to a Japanese restaurant.

Day 165 and Sue left the boat, J and D did some provisioning and left for Cropredy. Autumn is definitely well underway now and the hedgerows are full of “hips and haws”, crab apples and the trees are turning colour. The Oxford is known for being quite shallow at the best of times but after such a dry summer it really does seem low with some pounds down by as much as about 9 inches.  We did, however, have an illustration of quite how shallow when we avoided going anywhere near some cattle in the water; we would avoid them anyway, but particularly this time as, although they were about seven feet from the bank the water was barely covering their hooves.

Stopped nice an early at Cropredy and D cleared the prop again, this time it was weed and a bit of baler twine. Made a really nice sausage casserole with some of the produce bought at The Pig Place.

Day 166 and we are back to a more normal start time for us. Did well heading towards Claydon locks and arrived about 25 minutes before they were reopened after their overnight restriction (we thought it was open again from 9am but it is now 10am). At least we were first in the queue, although no one else appeared whilst we were waiting. We were glad of the CRT presence, however, as a tree had fallen across the canal overnight. We might have been able to clear enough space to squeeze by with our little saw but they had a larger saw so SH became a work boat. One of the CRT guys used the bow as a platform to work from and J helped the other pull the cut branches out of the water.

We moved on through the second of the five locks and by the time we had cleared it they had removed all trace of the branches. We then met boats at each of the following locks so went up the rest of the flight really quite quickly. Aground again when J reversed to allow a work boat clear the narrow stretch, which is an old tunnel, close to Fenny Compton. Will probably be here for a couple of nights as the forecast for tomorrow is rubbish. D will have to be big and strong and resist the need to go to the pub for one of their famous pies.