Aynho and Somerton

Monday 12th April

We left Kings Sutton in not such nice weather as we have been having recently and continued on our journey southwards down the Oxford canal, through the odd shaped Aynho Weir Lock – not easy when the wind keeps insisting that you aren’t allowed to leave the lock!  Hooray for the bow thruster! A quite uneventful day, we moored early opposite Souldern Old Wharf – there’s a farm there, and lots of country smells!

Tuesday 13th April

 This morning we set off again, this time looking forward to Somerton Deep Lock, arguably the deepest lock on the system at 12ft.  In contrast to yesterday it was a glorious morning, although the wind was still quite strong and a trifle nippy.  Somerton is a lovely spot, another of our favourites, so I took lots of photos – I hope readers will bear with me!

The Oxfordshire countryside is beautiful here, and we had a lovely run for the next couple of hours through several more locks to Lower Heyford, where we filled with water and also spotted two more bloggers – Bones and Milly M, Maffi’s boat.  No sign of anyone on board either boat,  so they were probably at work.  Sorry to have missed you both, maybe next time!

We are now moored for the night just south of Dashwoods Lock, but it’s a TV and Internet black hole, so this post won’t be published tonight, that’s why I’ve put the dates on.  Hopefully when we get a bit closer to Oxford the signal will improve.

Wednesday 14th April

Today we had a pleasant cruise, but once again the weather was overcast with a stiff cold wind. We spotted a little muntjac deer standing stock peering at us through some trees – of course the camera was inside and I couldn’t get to it quickly enough.  Also spotted a couple of herons, which have been conspicuous by their absence so far on this cruise – we’ve only seen two others since we set out in the middle of March.  We watered at Thrupp, and were dismayed at the amount of permanent moorings there were, and the sad lack of visitor moorings – what few there were were full up with what looked like fairly long-termers.  We continued until we found some fairly decent ones above Roundham Lock, where we decided to stop.  Karen and I hiked into Kidlington to replenish supplies before our sojourn on the Thames.  We are in an ideal position to make a dash for  Dukes cut  in the morning.  This is our first time on a river, other than short stretches, so wish us luck!!