To pretty much everyone’s relief, there was a much fresher feel to the weather today — so fresh first thing that Adrian even put a fleece on. Macc got us up fairly early and we thought it would be a good idea to get the locks done before it got too warm again, so we set off at about 7.45. At the first lock, CRT were running some water down, but it didn’t cause many minutes delay.
When we were halfway down the lock a boat appeared round the corner. We said we’d wait for him at the next lock down.
While we waited in the lock there was time to get the washing out and onto the airer (didn’t need to use the dryer today). The boat that joined us was a single-handing South African guy who was on his way to Whilton Marina to sell it.
We made pretty good progress down the locks, even meeting a boat coming up the bottom lock who’d completely forgotten what to do having apparently not done a lock for eight months. It was about 10am when we got to the bottom, and started the familiar plod along the Stowe Hill pound. This is the journey we would always have taken after the Crick Show, it’s just that in the past we’d have done the whole journey to Thrupp Wharf in a day and a half! Our original target had been Standing Barn Bridge, but there were quite a lot of boats there; we tried a spot in Nether Heyford but the internet signal right there appeared to be terrible, so we ended up going to a nice spot past Bridge 33. We stopped here in 2018 when Catherine, Nigel, Grace and Matthew were on their boat and all had a barbecue. There’s a nice wide towpath which Macc has enjoyed being out on.
Numerous boats have been past, including a Napton hire boat going too fast for an empty canal let along passing moored boats. I have sent the company the photo.
This afternoon I have put the Crick Show podcast together. It’s quite a mammoth one and will be out on Friday.
8 miles, 6 locks. (13 miles, 14 locks)