An interesting day today!

We set off early as the forecast was for another hot day. As we approached Duke’s cut lock we could see a small GRP cruiser in there. It was crewed by two young men (they looked like students). They appeared to be having problems, so we went up to take a look. They had started to descend the lock but their boat was caught up and was listing at quite an angle. The problem was that they had left a fender down, one of the fat blue ones that river boaters seem to love. They appeared to be completely comfused as to what the problem was. So we explained and re-filled the lock in an attempt to get the fender out. It was well and truly jammed, but with a quite a bit of pulling it came free. So we started emptying the lock again. The boat was still stuck.  As the lock only has a fall of about 18″ we were able to pull the boat over at an angle so that the widest part was above the lockside. They eventually got through. I asked which way they were going. “Back into town” was the reply. They didn’t have a windlass with them, so how they were going to manage Wolvercote lock I dont know!

We carried on up through Thruppetc to moor up under a tree for shade just past Aynho Wharf.

After supper we were out for our usual evening stroll when we meet a man who was concerned as his wife had dropped her phone and couldn’t find it. They were staying in a camper van at “The Pig Place” near Nell’s bridge. We said that we would look out for the phone on our way back to the boat. We retraced our steps along the towpath to the boat keeping an eye out for the phone.  We hadn’t found it by the time we got back to the boat so decided to extend our walk and check a bit further. In the end we walked all the way to Nell’s bridge and into their campsite where we found the phone by the bins.

We were going to take the phone back to the pub where they were having a meal, but started to ring so I answered it. It was the lady’s daughter. She was walking the towpath calling the phone hoping to hear it ring. Soon we met them coming the other way and we reunited the very thankful lady with her phone.