Lower Heyford to Banbury

Up early today and the Suns come back out.........hooray so off we set again a heavy lift bridge is our first obstacle the canal wanders through water meadows as we head North along the Cherwell valley.

As it enter Somerton it enter a short cutting before it opens to into open pastureland before we reach Somerton deep lock at 12 ft deep. We then pass Anyho Junction and more lock and lift bridges but luckily for us the lift, bridges are left in the open position.

The M40 crosses the canal and its drone of traffic is noticeable, then the houses of the outskirts of Banbury come into view and gradually more and more urban then it's a lock and a lift bridge before we moor in the middle of Banbury for the night.

Thrupp to Lower Heyford

We left Thrupp to a grey windy day a electric lift bridge was. Our first obstacle to over come,pass the moored boat of Thrupp canal cruising club. http://www.thruppccc.org.uk/content/thrupp

Into open countryside again as we pass the little villages of Hampton Gay, Shipton on Cherwell, and Gibralta with is pub the Rock of Gibralta.

A few locks and lift bridges again as the canal opens onto country farmland we pass the village of Tackley which is about a mile from the canal  and Rousham house which dates from 1635 and was once a royalist garrison during the civil war and the doors still have the shooting holes preserved from the conflict.

We then decide to take on water and have a little wait whilst two other boats take on water, and the weather changes so we decide to moor up for the day at Lower Heyford, a lovely spot except the main railway runs adjacent to the canal and the roar of the trains spoil the quietness of this spot, no internet tonight as no signal will have to load tomorrow.

200 yds move

Today we set off in terrible weather rain, wind and more rain but their is a gap in the rain so we set off and then it bucketed down so we moor up and stay put for the day in Thrupp, we will. Move tomorrow hopefully 

Bank holiday Monday

We leave Abington and straight away we have a lock, the lock keeper isn't on duty so Denise must push the buttons to operate the lock, we pass on through and then takes on much needed water before carrying on our journey towards Oxford.

As we. Approach Oxford the river gets a lot busier with lots of rowers, canoeist and other pleasure crafts on the waterways, also the footpaths have a lot of activities cyclists, joggers, and walkers.

The side of the river now has the rowing club houses for each university situated on the riverbank,as we reach Osney railway bridge with its touching memorial to Edgar Wilson who on the 15 th of June 1889 saved the lives of two boys here, at the cost of his own.

We don't turn on to the Oxford canal straight away but stay on the Thames as its skirts the city, here we pass Pot Meadow a expanse of meadow land which has wild horses grazing upon it then we pass the remains of Godstow Abbey which was found in the 12-C then we turn onto Dukes cut which then joins the Oxford canal and we are back on still water, and narrow locks we carry on to Thrupp where we moor just before it rains.

Away and back to Abbington

 

It's  a bit of a dull start to the morning with grey skies, we are in Abbington an 18-C market town which grew around the Abbey which was founded in AD695, little remains of the original building except the Abbey gate. http://www.abingdon.gov.uk/

We wait for our Old friends from Cardiff to turn up which they do on their bikes as they cycled from the campsite at Clifton Hampden where they are staying in their motorhome for the weekend. We have a coffee and a chat before we turn the boat around and take the pair for a cruise back to their camper van.

We arrive at Clifton Hampden moor the boat and with Gareth and Val go to the campsite  and view their motorhome which is a very nice vehicle, Denise and I are both interested in motorhomes as our plan is to have one after we finish the waterways in our boat. So we have a spot of lunch  befor return to the boat and back to Abbington, where luckily we find a mooring spot, so we moor and then with our friends we go off to the pubs for a few shandies.

Abbington has 20 public houses and we sample  a few of them before deciding to have something to eat in a lovely Thai restraraunt, and must say the meal was really good and would reccommend it to everyone. http://www.zabbthai.com/

Anothe pint before Gareth and Val get a taxi back to there campsite and we walk back to the boat and to bed.

On Sunday morning we decide not to move and during the night we noticed flash light every now and then passing our windows and this morning we could see it racers going pass they are in an endurance race from Reading to Oxford 100 miles long and have be running all day and night but best of luck to them. http://www.centurionrunning.com/thames-path-100-2015/thames-path-100-2015/

On that note on Friday evening we could here people clapping by the side of the Thames and there were swimmers in it, some had wetsuits on but some were just wearing bathers and take it from me the water is bloody freezing.

So today Sunday, we haven't done much had a nice roast dinner and then watched an array of aeroplanes which have been flying over us all afternoon from the local air display.http://www.abingdonairandcountry.co.uk/

Onto Abbington again

Up quite early this morning the weather is fine again, sunny but a bit chilly, anyway off we set a few locks to operate plus a few more with lockeepers of them to help.

The Thames is lovely this morning it seems that we are the only boat on it. Plenty of swans,geeses , herons, grebes, kingfishers, red kites and other birds keep us company as we cruise on to Abbington.

Our friends Gareth and Val are coming this way in their motorhome, we pass where they are going to site the motorhome but we are unable to find any suitable mooring space by there, so we carrying on to Abbington here we moor by the park, we arrange to meet up with Gareth and Val tomorrow so we are looking forward to that.

Speak to you tomorrow .