A big bull
Bank holiday Monday and its typical bank holiday weather, it's raining! our friends Mike and Helen turn up to the boat and off we set for their days trip. We encounter a swing bridge that needs to be raised first, with a lock following closely and then we top up our water, before leaving Banbury behind, and then it's into open countryside and despite the rain it is beautiful, with rolling farmland with the fields full of their lush green crops.
We only go through four locks today but also plenty of swing bridges where their is a chain attached to pull down on to open, but luckily for Denise and Helen most of them are in the open position other wise their arms would be hanging off.
We pass the village of King Sutton, we don't stop but see it in the distance, but in church stands a font that is linked with the baptism in the year 662 of St Rumbold who lived nearby,a bit further down the the river Cherwell runs adjacent and joins at the Anyho lock, which makes this part of the stretch so times s going into flood and with restricted use. At Anyho Wharf we moor up for the night and pay a visit to the canal side pub the Great Western, here we have a few drinks before Mike and Helen get into a taxi to go back to Banbury to pick up their car and. drive back to Cardiff. We had a great weekend with them with plenty of laughs, one memorial one was when Helen took over the tiller to steer the barge,in that matter of 10m she managed to turn the boat at a rate of speed into the side of the canal full of trees and bushes and when told to turn, she was shouting " I am" and laughing her head off, she was,but the wrong way. And all this took place in the pouring rain which did not let up all day but was full of laughs.
A swing bridge that needs brute pulling power to operate
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