Wednesday 15th August; Somerton Meadows to Thrupp
The cattle returned at dawn – a bellow at 5am announcing their arrival – but they weren’t interested in us at all. Lovely to watch as we had breakfast.
It seemed to be a herd of cows and older calves, eating grass now but still with their mums. Two were doing a bit of tussling as they followed the herd.
We were away at 8.30, passing a few boats but not many for the first hour or two. Some of the locks have pretty little stone bridges below them. This is at Allen’s Lock, and has little ferns growing out of it. Don’t know the species unfortunately.
Also at Allen’s Lock, with no-one waiting to use the lock, we picked a good bowl of blackberries – they are a decent size here, unlike those the other side of Banbury, which only have three or four black berry-bits to each berry. The horrendously heavy steel Mill Lift Bridge (205) at Lower Heyford has at last been electrified. I used to be able to open it – just – but had the dickens of a job keeping it open as I wasn’t heavy enough. Now, it’s as easy as pie.
From here on it was day-boat after day-boat after day-boat, as they left the boatyard at Heyford Wharf. We met the last couple as we were passing the long line of boats moored on the bend before the bridge. The offside vegetation here is flourishing, to say the least, and there was very little space to pass the moored boats. With care on both sides, we and the day-boats passed without incident. But the next boat, which had pulled in behind a great thick mass of willow branches to let us pass, suddenly changed its mind and started forcing its way through the undergrowth, pushing us into the moored boats. They smiled cheerily and thanked us as they went by! Somewhat ruffled after that, we finally got past the moorings without further incident. My attention was not on taking photos – too busy looking out for the next hazard!
A little while later we met an old working boat and butty ( I didn’t note down the names, so I’ve forgotten them now). They will have fun going through Lower Heyford and no mistake.
Late morning now, and luckily there was space at Kirtlington Quarry moorings so we pulled in. We took Meg for a lovely walk round the quarry and up to the village, where we bought a very nice pork pie and veggie pasty for our lunch. It’s a fair old walk to get there, but it’s a pretty village and worth the effort. The grassy areas are still dry and dead-looking, with barely any green to be seen.
We walked down Mill Lane as far as Jane’s Tea Garden to see if it was open today, but it’s done for this year now – it won’t open again till next April. We walked back through the woods alongside the canal.
We didn’t pass many boats as we wound round the bends at Gibraltar and made our way to Baker’s lock, where the navigation joins the river Cherwell for a short while. We had thought that the cement works was closed now, but the clouds of dust were still floating across the river below the lock and there was a lot of noise. The vegetation is covered in a thin white cloak of lime, as though caught by a sudden frost.
We met no-one on the river section, which was slow-flowing, and Shipton Weir lock was empty. We were soon through – the drop is only a couple of feet. Between the lock and Thrupp is a lift bridge which is dodgy to put it mildly. It is seriously warped and bounces as you cross it. It didn’t want to stay open and I had to sit firmly on the balance beam to hold it while Chuffed passed through.
We grabbed the first available mooring in Thrupp, even though it was on a bend and neither the bow nor stern could come right in to the bank. But if you want to stop in Thrupp you don’t take any chances – it’s very popular and you might find that there are no more spaces. We went down to the Boat for a pint later on and found this delightful example of yarn-bombing. Meg is pointing out that the wheel has been the most interesting aspect for our canine friends!
The individual foxglove flowers are all hanging separately from the stem. Someone is very clever.
Rain is forecast, so we closed everything up this evening and brought in the seat cushions.
10½ miles, 7 locks, 2 lift bridges (Mill Lane being electric)
I do like a good bit of yarn bombing.
ReplyDeleteGlad that bridge has been electrified, I had to get Mick to do it when we passed through a couple of years ago as there was no chance of me keeping it open to get the boat through.