Hot and slow, but a lovely day

Sunday 25^th August; Roundham lock to above Northbrook lock

It was already hot by the time we got moving at 9.30.  Dave spent a bit of time doing stuff down the engine hole before we left.

He dropped me at bridge 224 to pop up to the Co-op for the paper and some milk, and waited to pick me up again on the noisy moorings by the road before the main Thrupp moorings.  Could we stop to exchange a book at the pub?  I had seen one I fancied when we ate there the other night, but hadn’t finished the one I would exchange it with.  But it was a bit early, and anyway we were being waved through the lift bridge.  I managed to hop off to get rid of some rubbish though.

It was busy at the lock onto the Cherwell.  The boat in front of us in the queue was only 45’ and invited us to share the lock with him.

Busy at Shipton Weir lock

We fitted easily, and then, as they were only going to the Gibraltar for lunch, they insisted we went ahead.  The river was lovely in the sunshine, with families walking in the meadows, and their dogs enjoying the water ...

And families in canoes on the water ...

and all in all the river was beautiful and it was a day to make you glad to be alive. 

We ascended Baker’s lock back onto the canal, and passed quietly through Enslow, thinking we would moor above Pigeon lock for lunch.  However …. we arrived at Pigeon lock to find a boat going up, but also 3 ahead of us.  Once we reached somewhere Dave could get off and hold the boat, I made some sandwiches.  When we finally reached the lock moorings, we ate our lunch.  We were waiting for about an hour and a half in all, and it was gettingextremely hot.  Eventually we were up, regretting that the Enchanted Tea Garden was not open, but admiring the doves anyway.

The sun was so strong that the picture is rather over-exposed.  On the way to Northbrook lock we realised that the lovely shady mooringsalong this strtch may be rather more exposed next year – the towering ash trees are thinning out with the wretched Chalara die-back disease, and will probably die.  When the branches fall there will be good firewood, I suppose.

At Northbrook we waited behind a share boat which had been stuck behind two dayboats for an hour or so.  We ascended Northbrook lock and found one of them with an engineer in attendance – the gear-box had run out of oil so it wasn’t surprising they were a bit slow!  Not much further on, we reached a spot with a bit of shade, which got deeper as the afternoon progressed.  Thank goodness. 

 

But even after 7, it was still hot outside.  The green woodpeckers were calling and a squirrel was complaining about something on the other back – but it was so hot that Meg just lay stretched out on the towpath.

6½ miles, 3 locks, 1 swing bridge done for us.