Up early to leave our mooring at Thrupp, the CART sherriff would be doing his rounds later in the day, and we were reversing along the canal, by 8.15am, under the lift bridge to the water point for a top up then headed North.
With fine but cool weather we shared the first lock , the unusual shaped Shipton Weir, with 2 other boats. By the time we reached Bakers lock, only 1.5miles on, it was a bit showery.
It was good to be cruising on the "cut" again after time just doing short moves enabling us to sort the winter months.
At Pigeon lock there's a nice house moored beside the canal with...
A turf roof on the LH end...
And with plenty of helping hands doing the business on the locks......
Leonie found time to pick a few blackberries...... tasted OK in a sponge later for PUDD....
At Dashwood lock we caught up with the Thrupp "deputy sherriff," lol, .....
Maffi... have coffee will travel.. the layers of clothing worn have increased 4 fold since last week but mainly to keep dry......
As I drove into the lock Leonie yelled "Maffis here" as he approached and began to chat.
That didn't last long as a scream from the direction of the NB at the top of the lock, and which Maffi was helping the two woman crew get to Thrupp, had him sprinting faster than Usain Bolt to the canal edge and drag one of the crew backwards onto the towpath from the canal water. Wet but not injured so we continued our yak..
Thanks for sharing conversation and beers at the "Boat Inn" who knows where the cut will lead..
By the time we reached Lower Heyford Leonie had had the washing on the drying rack out and back in from the front of the boat several times and every time asking me " is it going to rain, how longs it going to last"?...
Hey I'm a master boater not a freak'n ambassador for the weather bureau....
We moored at Upper Heyford and took a walk around the village, small but had the standard pub and...
A nice row of thatched cottages...
And this stone house with a trendy .... everything.... fence , entry porch...
We pushed on but the wind was increasing in velocity making it uncomfortable so we picked a nice quite rural mooring and closed the hatch just as a heavy wind driven shower hit..... who cares....
Up this morning, not early as we had to recover from yesterdays early start, and the sky was blue but the wind was still strong.
Pressing on we shortly arrived at Somerton Deep lock to find we were 5th in line to go up. This lock is so slow filling and emptying there always seems to be a queue.
Being exposed to the wind meant each NB arriving needed help from the towpath to get the mooring ropes secure so it was a bit of fun playing hold onto the blow away NB....
Somerton Deep lock has a 12 foot rise and fall... at this end ...
And this end too......
Made it to Aynho, pronounced A No, had a pump out, filled with diesel then bought a new water tank , petrol and pumpout cap key as I dropped ours in the canal then moored on the opposite side of the canal.
Watching Doc Martin on telly to night recognizing the Port Isacc sights we recently visited but havn't noticed that prick giving out 100 quid parking tickets......
Tomorrow we'll see what the weather brings...
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