Late yesterday afternoon the CRT emails started arriving about closures on the South Oxford Canal — the Napton flight closing from the afternoon of Sunday, and then Claydon down to Aynho Weir Lock from tomorrow afternoon. We had anticipated this was likely to happen because of the lack of rain. A week or so ago we considered whether we should be pushing ourselves and getting off the river and back on the canals, but decided we might still find ourselves being stuck somewhere — and it might be somewhere inconvenient. So we concluded we might as well stay on the Thames for the duration of our licence, then loiter in the Oxford area. Adrian has an event he’s attending in Birmingham in early September, and we thought that if we were unable to get there by boat, Oxford was a convenient place to get the train instead. By then we might have more idea whether the South Oxford is likely to re-open in the near or far future, and we can either wait or turn round and head for the Grand Union (although there’s no guarantee that will be open either).
With all that in mind, we decided we’d stay today on our lovely mooring above Day’s Lock. Almost no-one walks past here, it’s really quiet, and there are great views. This morning I started writing an article, and then at about 10.30 we all headed off along the footpath towards Dorchester. We were aiming for the Snug Cafe at the farm which owns these moorings, a walk of about 20 minutes. There we sat outside and had tea, coffee, and a chocolate orange brownie, which was delicious and just the right texture. We could also pay for our extra night mooring there.
We came back via a slightly different route through the village, passing the fruit and flower stall I’d seen yesterday. We bought a bunch of sunflowers for the boat.
Yesterday evening a tug arrived and moored on the lock island. As we got back this morning it was leaving again, heading for the lock, towing a floating digger behind it.
After lunch, I finished my article and sorted out the photos, and Adrian did some accounts work. It’s been rather cloudy for much of the day, although the sun has come out again now. It’s also been much more windy than forecast, so let’s hope that drops tomorrow morning or we might have trouble getting away from the side!
0 miles, 0 locks, £10. (66 miles, 25 locks, £124.50)
I expect CRT will open the locks for a 7 or 10-day window in the Autumn as they did last year to allow boats to get back to their home moorings so make sure you are ready for that and prepared to move quickly.
I walked a stretch of the Oxford Canal during that window last year and the queues for locks were all 3 to 4 hours long and nobody had factored that into their plans to get home meaning they had to cruise very long days. One boater said he was cruising 18 hour days to do what normally takes 6 hours. It was taking three times as long to get anywhere on most days and even a rare good day took him twice as long.
One couple said they had eaten breakfast and lunch in the same queue at Claydon. The boater behind them said he hadn’t eaten as he’d no time to go shopping. Everyone was grumpy and it was most unlike normal boating days.