On Wednesday 1st August we left our mooring at Godstow about 7.30am and when we arrived at Kings Lock it was on self service, we were soon up and out of the lock and turned right onto Dukes cut.
Leaving Kings lock.
Onto Dukes cut.
As we got up our first lock on the Oxford canal there were lots of moored boats as usual, it was very shallow and the moored boats were all on the bottom of the canal. It was very slow going and when we were approaching the next lock there was a hire boat coming out of it, as he was passing us he got stuck for a bit and so did we, Kev ended up getting the pole out to push us off.
Very shallow
I must admit the Oxford canal is a bit of a disgrace, it is very overgrown and in many places the towpath is virtually non-existent!!
Anybody lost a bike?
Stuck beside the hire boat.
Kev managed to get us moving again.
It was slow going and we managed to get to Lower Heyford.
By Friday lunchtime we were mooring at Fenny Compton for the weekend. We had arranged to meet some lovely friends that we had met when we were stuck at Islip lock on the river Nene a couple of years ago. Monty had sold his narrowboat and bought a lovely cruiser and had just moved from Ventnor marina to Fenny Compton marina and his partner Mel was going to join him on Saturday. On Friday evening Monty had left work and got to his marina about 6.30pm and he walked down the towpath to join Kev & I for a drink or two on Rock'N'Roll.
On Saturday lunchtime Kev & I went to the Wharf Inn for something to eat and very good it was too. We then went back to the boat to make sure Jaz was ok and let her out to stretch her legs. Later in the afternoon we got a call from Mel & Monty to say they were having a dink in the Wharf Inn so we took Jaz with us and joined them.
Mel & Monty.
After a couple of beers we took Jaz back to the boat while Mel & Monty drove round to their marina and we then joined them there for a few more drinks.
The marina is full of massive Carp.
On Sunday we left Fenny Compton about lunchtime to cruise a couple of miles to have a BBQ, Monty & Mel came with us on their cruiser "Sandra"and we let them pass us and we followed them to a nice quiet spot in the countryside and had a lovely BBQ and drinks, we put the world to rights as you do, it was great to catch up with them. How often do we meet people and say keep in touch and sometimes we never do for one reason or another. ..They left us at this mooring and they turned round and went back to Fenny Compton as they both had work the next day, Monty would be staying on his boat while Mel headed back home.
On Monday 6th August we were on our way again, I walked Jaz while kev followed on the boat, with this hot weather it is better for Jaz in a morning before the sun is too unbearable for her. As I was walking Jaz went to sniff at something and as I got close I saw this on the towpath....
I was surprised it was still alive!
I got back on board at a bridge and we carried on until we reached the water point at Napton top lock where we stopped before the lock and filled with water, it was very slow to fill so while we waited for the tank to fill we had a bite to eat and a cuppa. Water tank full I walked to get the lock ready and Kev pulled the boat forward off the water point. We wanted to empty our cassette at the bottom of the Napton Flight but the services were out of order.
We carried on and we turned left at the junction for the Grand Union canal, we managed to share 2 of the 3 locks at Calcutt going down and then we moored passed the first entrance to Ventnor marina.
This morning after my washer had finished we were on our way just after 8.30am, and when we got to Stockton locks we were on our own and went into the first lock by ourselves, then Kev said there was a boat ahead of us in the third lock and the man had seen us and filled the second lock for us and waited for us to join him & his wife in the third so that made it easier. When we got through lock 13 the couple sharing the lock with us stopped as they were mooring there, so we carried on and after we had passed Little Itchington we moored up for something to eat, when we were about ready to leave there was a boat coming up behind us so we let them pass and followed them to Bascote staircase locks and shared all the locks until we moored before the winding hole after Bull Bridge. In between the locks we managed to get our cassettes emptied at Fosse Wharf.
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