Thursday 23rd August; Slat Mill bridge to Priors Hardwick
The boats moored for the Cropredy folk festival the weekend before last had been moored right up to Slat Mill bridge (pictured). It is rather more peaceful now! I just remembered to take a snap as I was casting off – hence the slack rope - and luckily had the camera with me.
It had rained overnight and it was still drizzling so we started off in full wet weathers, though they were soon put away again. Dave walked Meg up towards Cropredy last night, and passed a boat on the offside residential moorings as someone was maybe doing the washing up or having a shower, or possibly just a joke. The water was pumped out in a very interesting manner ….. there is a little hosepipe where the mannequin is lacking certain equipment. But nothing happening today.
Plenty of boats were on the move this morning, with NB Dolcie Blue going by well before we left. They had moored temporarily while they went to see if there was space on the moorings above Cropredy lock, and came out to join us in the queue. She is for sale – a strikingly attractive boat, designed as a liveaboard and based on a Dutch barge design. The owners have decided, after several years cruising the system, to move back on land.
I went up to see if anyone was waiting to come down the lock – there was, fellow bloggers NB Triskaideka.
Meg photobombing Triskaideka
I picked up a couple of nice cooking apples at the lock – one from the box, the other was floating in the canal and pointed out by Meg, who seemed to think it was a ball. The boater who sells fenders at Broadmoor lock had some apples for sale, and I bought some nice eaters.
The canal was quiet once again until we were nearing Claydon locks, when we started meeting boats at regular intervals. We met boats at every lock except for the last.
At the middle lock a CRT workboat was waiting to come down. I asked if the overnight closures were making any difference to water levels, and was told the closures were mostly to protect the reservoir levels. He did ask me if we had had any problems, so I mentioned that the pound above King’s Sutton lock had been worse when we came back along it; he thought a work party was going down there to check for leaks.
You remember the zombie scarecrows at Clattercote Wharf? Three have escaped and are hiding out at the permanent moorings opposite Feeder bridge.
We were steadily catching up with the very slow boat that went up the Claydon flight before us. At Fenny ‘tunnel’ we were a couple of hundred yards behind them so could easily tell we wouldn’t meet anyone coming the other way. Before we stopped on the Fenny moorings for lunch, Dave dropped me off at the chandlery, which is the new home for boaters’ rubbish bins – just make sure you get there during office opening hours as the access (via the big gates behind the chandlery) is locked at other times to keep the marina secure. There is glass recycling too.
After lunch we carried on to get a bit closer to the Napton flight for tomorrow. We almost stopped near that tall radio mast that seems to switch from port to starboard as the canal winds across the summit; it’s a lovely mooring but we went on a bit further to Priors Hardwick. The first spot we tried was too shallow – the pound is about 6” down – but we found a good place on the Armco near bridge 124. There were enough blackberries in the hedges to cook with the Cropredy apples for a crumble. The birds are in for a feast this autumn – the blackberries may be patchy in some places, but the rosehips and haws are abundant, though not yet ripe.
Plentiful too are the ruby jewels of the Guelder Rose, which will be stunning when they are fully ripe,
and the sloes should be ready soon.
The neighbours were quiet, but did give us a few hard stares.
The wind picked up during the evening, with a few clear spells, enough to see the moon sailing along.
The sky directly above us was dark blue with palely glowing stripes; we thought the stripes must have been contrails from the frequent aeroplanes which had been passing high above, high enough for the last light of the sun – now below the horizon – to reach them. Or they could have been illuminated by the moon above the scudding lower clouds. Is there a meteorologist out there who can tell me? It was very beautiful but unfortunately I couldn’t get a photo on my little camera.
12 miles, 9 locks, 1 open lift bridge, 1 open tunnel
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