Kidlington

A long day. We hadn’t intended to get this far (20 miles & 12 locks) today, but the weather was good so we carried on intending to stop at Thrupp, but there were no free moorings. So it was about 6:00 before we stopped. The day didn’t start too good. We had only been going

Just south of Banbury

Yesterday we drove to Monks Risborough to celebrate our son in law Paul’s birthday. A trip to Tesco.com this morning to top up with provisions for the London trip. I completed the engine service, changing the oil and filters. Rather than stay in the marina we decided to move out into Cropredy village and moored

Near Bridge 193

The sun was shining so we made our usual early morning start. Walker Services at Aynho Wharf had diesel on at a very reasonable 78p/l and we needed just over 100 litres. A fairly uneventful and quiet day. We winded just before Pigeons Lock and then back up to near bridge 193. It was a

Off at last

I cant believe it, six months since the boat last moved! Over the winter we have visited several times, but not gone anywhere (except across the marina for a pumpout!). On the way up to Cropredy we stopped off at Sudeley Castle for a ‘Home & Gardens’ show. We had a cheap Groupon ticket. The

Napton

Fairly uneventful day. There was quite a hold up at Hillmorton as one of the top locks was out of action, so to preserve water CRT had disabled one of each of the other two pairs.  It took us an hour and a half to get through. A stop to top up the water and

Ansty

As we need to be back home by Thursday we had decided to make an early start. As I was untying at just after 7:00 Graham from Jannock popped his head out and said that Neil & Linda on Earnest (yes that one, not the other one) had already left about half an hour ago.

Cutweb Rally

The last three days we have been at the Cutweb rally. Much socialising, drinking, eating and catching up with friends. Activities included, a treasure hunt, conkers, boules, an auction & a quiz.

Alvecote

We set off early again in good weather. The plan today is to get to the Cutweb rally site at Alvecote marina. The rally proper doesnt start until Saturday, but usually people turn up on Friday or Thursday. There was the usual chaos at Fradley with boats coming out of the Coventry to turn down

Alrewas

We were glad to be back on narrow locks, though we had two more of the hard, deep T&M wide locks to do first. We are very familiar with this stretch of the T&M. Our share boat Symphony used to be based here. Also we came this way to and from York two years ago.

Weston on Trent

The weather changed a little overnight. We awoke to a rather chilly, misty morning. The spiders had had fun during the night, there were webs everywhere! It was so misty that we couldn’t see the cooling towers of Ratcliffe power station that usually dominate the skyline around here. For most of today and part of