We knew we’d be hanging around a bit today, so we had a relaxed start to the day. Once we were up and breakfasted, we set to and washed and polished the towpath side of the boat. Plenty of people walked past, most of them with dogs in tow. We did a few other jobs round the boat, and then wandered along to Annie’s Tea Room for lunch. It was busy there, with plenty of people at the outdoors tables. Back at the boat it was just after 2pm when the Boating Leisure Services van pulled out outside, with four new batteries on board. It seems that there’s a general difficulty in getting stock at the moment, so we’ve got what was available which turned out to be sealed batteries, which won’t need topping up. Dave had them swapped over in short order, and by 3pm we were casting off; we needed some hot water so thought we might as well go a little further.
The canal through Kidlington has little to recommend it, passing industrial units and then housing. Roundham Lock seems like one of the shonkiest we’ve been through. The top gate is very old and flimsy, while the bottom gate has had some unusual repairs, with a bit of Armco bolted on, and an extension to replace a chopped off balance beam.
A boat arrived to come up so we could leave the gate open for them. At Kidlington Green Lock a boat was coming up, so we could then go straight in. We moored up in a nice sunny spot just below the lock, in a more rural setting. We had been moving for less than an hour and a half.
2 miles, 2 locks. (76 miles, 56 locks)
1 comment:
We believe that Roundham is due for replacement in November.
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