Cropredy….

Oh what a beautiful morning…  Such a change from the last couple of weeks.  We left Fenny Compton in blazing sunshine, and it wasn’t long before we were down to t-shirts.   The countryside was quiet and peaceful, lovely in the sunshine.  We passed through the first of many lift-bridges to be encountered on this journey.

Look at the cloudless blue sky!

Eight locks later we were at Cropredy, and for once there was plenty of mooring space.  We love Cropredy, and went for a saunter around the village, taking lots of photos.

The Red Lion pub where we had a lovely meal last night to celebrate Rog’s birthday, also taking part in the pub quiz – we didn’t win, but we didn’t come last either!

When we got back from our walk, it was tea and birthday cake (with candles!)

This morning we left Cropredy to travel a little way along towards Banbury, which we will probably visit tomorrow – but then, if it’s a lovely day again we may just stay where we are and enjoy the sunshine.

Windsong in Cropredy lock

Napton and the Oxford summit….

Yesterday morning we left our mooring  just south west of  Braunston and braved the strong wind towards Napton Locks – the cruising was ‘challenging’ – with a few mishaps due to the wind!  However, it was dry and not too cold so that’s always a bonus.

Napton Junction

Signpost showing the way

We had views of Napton windmill from all angles from a long way off, and in a field occupied by Shetland ponies, cattle and sheep, we spied a deer, calmly lying the the middle of it all.

 

We filled with water before the first lock, and several hours later we up at the top of the locks at Marston Doles.

We spotted our namesake – not many of us about, and a fellow blogger – nb Harnser.  Sorry not to find you on board, Brian, maybe our paths will cross again some day soon.

We moored overnight and set off again this morning to traverse the summit of the Oxford canal – and very peaceful and rural it is – not much to see but lots of sheep.

Peaceful landscape

It twists and turns this way and that, so that you are never quite sure which direction you are facing – we went through the bridge below five minutes before!  But at least you could see other boats coming towards you long before you reached a bend.

We are now moored at Fenny Compton for the night, and feel obliged to partake of the delights of the Wharf Inn tonight – tomorrow our goal is Cropredy for a meal in the Red Lion or the Brasenose Inn to celebrate Rog’s birthday.

A lazy Easter….

We remained moored at the top of Hillmorton Locks through Friday and Saturday, but were getting fed up with the view so we moved yesterday, to Braunston, turning right at the  junction.  Braunston was even more chaotic than usual, with boats everywhere, not helped by two boats breasting up just by the junction, leaving barely enough room for a boat to squeeze through.  We managed to take on some water though, and then continued on our way, mooring up just by Bridge 100.  Karen cooked us all a lovely Easter Sunday dinner,  and we spent an enjoyable evening aboard Serenity.  We have remained here today – we decided not to brave the extremely strong, cold wind – there are plenty of people having to do just that as they have to go back to work tomorrow – shame!!

The weather forecast looks better for tomorrow and the rest of the week in general, so we will continue on our way then.

What happened to Spring?….

Yesterday morning we moved from Ansty to Rose Narrowboats to collect Karen and Ian’s other daughter and boyfriend, although we wished we hadn’t!!  The weather was rotten, driving rain and sleet, and a howling, very cold wind!!  By the time we reached Rose we were frozen to the core.  We then had a long wait to fuel up, tied 3rd abreast all their hire boats – not much fun!!

Kelly and Dave picked up, we headed on a bit further to find somewhere to moor, but were unlucky until Newbold.  The bright spot of the day was that the tunnel lights were on – the first time we’ve seen them.

Pretty – but why??

We found a couple of spaces to moor, but the bank was not good – horrible metal zig-zag sort of stuff, and the fenders are never in the right place.  The North Oxford is a rotten canal for mooring, considering how busy it is – it’s about time BW spent some money on it and put in some decent Armco and welcomed it’s visitors instead of seeming to ignore boaters needs.   The only decent moorings seem to be full up with ‘continuous moorers’  hippy hutches.

We set off for Hillmorton this morning in glorious sunshine, still cold, but much better than yesterday. We were going to fill with water at the water point near the big Tesco in Rugby, but it was impossible to get anywhere near it, the bank was so bad.

The water point at Hillmorton isn’t much better, but at least we were able to get the boat within jumping-off distance of the bank.  There were several hippy hutches moored on the water points at Hillmorton today.  One hastily got his hose out when he saw us coming, and then lent it to Serenity so he had an excuse not to move off when he was full!!  I’m fairly sure he will still be there this time next week – do something about it BW – see em off!!!

By the time we had finished watering, it was pouring with rain again, and we had a very soggy trip up the locks to where we are moored now.  The weather is set to continue into the Easter weekend, so I doubt whether we will move far for at least a couple of days – fed up now with getting wet and cold!!

Woolly gongoozlers…..

We made the short hop from Hawkesbury to Ansty this morning, to drop off Serenity’s visitors.  Dodging the showers, we managed not to get wet.

Not much of interest along this bit of the North Oxford, just a few woolly gongoozlers:

First there was one

Then there were four

But they had a short attention span – either that or Mum told them not to be nosy!!

Tomorrow morning we will make our way to Stretton Stop, and Rose Narrow Boats to fill with diesel and collect Ian and Karen’s other daughter for a couple of days.

Friends for the weekend….

On Saturday morning, although we were expecting them, we were surprised to get a text at 8.30 letting us know that our friends Ang and Tony had set off from Kings Lynn to come for the weekend.  8.30!!  Must be some sort of a record!!

We set off up the locks to meet them at  lock no 6 – and at about 11 o’ clock they arrived – armed with wine, cider, fresh eggs from their chickens, bacon, cake and daffodils.  We soon put them to work helping us up the rest of the flight, Ang staying with me to lock Windsong through, and Tony helping Ian with Serenity.

We moored right beside the Anchor just past Hartshill (funny old thing!!) at about 2pm.   Not a very salubrious mooring, and we were a trifle concerned about the the level of local ‘hoodies’ hanging around, but had no trouble.  Needless to say we thought we’d better check out the pub as we had a table booked for later that evening.

We set off towards Hawkesbury on Sunday morning after a hearty egg and bacon breakfast – thanks ‘girls’ the eggs were delicious!  The weather was much better that forecast, and we had a nice run.

On arrival at lunchtime, it was decided that we should visit the The Greyhound! (to obtain the phone number of a local taxi firm to ferry them back to their car) Well that was our excuse, and we’re sticking to it. (Contrary to popular opinion, we are NOT alkies, and don’t visit every pub we pass – just a lot of them!)

We had a great weekend.  Thanks both, for coming all this way to see us – have a good time in Bahrain Tony, and let us know when you hear about the new job.

This morning the weather was foul, Karen and Ian were now expecting guests, their daughter and her boyfriend.  By the time they arrived we had decided to stay put, so here we still are.  The forecast for tomorrow is dry so we will move on then.  The pub has a good offer on tonight – pie, chips and peas, and a pint for a fiver – it would be criminal not to partake!!

Some views of Hawkesbury Junction

The Greyhound

The beginning of the North Oxford – our route from tomorrow

The Junction bridge

This odd little Police Station is right on the junction of the two canals.

A ‘rest day’ on Friday….

Do we have any other sort of days, now we’re retired?!!

We spent Friday moored just below the start of the Atherstone lock flight.  After a night of torrential rain, the towpath was very soggy, but it didn’t stop Karen, Ian and I going out to do some more geocaching.  We found the first and the third on our list, but didn’t find the second, and didn’t even look for the fourth as it was on a main road.  Cassie found some new friends.

who seemed as keen to play as she was.  She dashed into the field and ran around with them, and had to be spoken to very sharply to get her to come out again.  I was afraid of her getting kicked.