The weather was a bit dull to start, when we set off at around 8.15. The first lock, Grants, is the last that has the big single bottom gate. It’s mitred pairs from Banbury northwards.
When we got to Banbury, we stopped on the water point to fill the tank, and got a wash load going. Then it was up the lock which was ready for us, and through the lift bridge.
We passed Herbie moored a little further along, just as they were about to set off, then as we moored by the park Kath and Neil came by — so we managed two brief conversations.
We walked across the foot bridge and restocked the cupboards and fridge from Waitrose. We had been running rather low on quite a lot of things. When we set off again, we found a long queue at Hardwick Lock; it seemed CRT had been running water down to top up the Banbury pound, so no boats had been up for a while. We were about fourth in the queue, and before long there were another three behind — and similar numbers waiting to come down. It all took a while, but by the next lock the queue had dissipated. The pound between Bourton Lock and Slat Mill Lock was very short of water, so it was more like ploughing than boating. We were watched by cows when we reached the lock.
At Cropredy, everyone takes a photo of the lock cottage, but the house the other side of the bridge is, if anything, even nicer.
We made a brief pause while Adrian went to find a post box, then we carried on up Broadmoor, Varney’s, and Elkington’s Locks, mostly meeting people coming down. We also met boats at the bottom couple of locks of the Claydon flight, but had run out of downhill boats by the middle lock. The penultimate lock has an interesting temporary repair to the balance beam.
We knew the top lock had one paddle out of action, but couldn’t remember which end. It turns out it’s both ends. We moored on the end of the moorings just beyond the lock and bridge.
10 miles, 14 locks. (168 miles, 108 locks)
No comments:
Post a Comment