Mint sauce

 

With the temperature at minus 1 we pulled ropes through rings from our mooring at Fenny Compton with the plan of getting to the bottom of the Napton flight of 9 locks. A bit of an early start at 07.30 but with the reward of a beautiful Sunrise it was well worth it.

You may remember that I put up a picture of this tree a few weeks ago for Ann on Nb Oakfield. Well here it is again with the Sun coming up behind it.

As you can see it’s bloody cold ,but with thermal socks ,gloves ,hats and a few hundred layers of clothes we are fine. We have a couple hours of cruising across the summit of the Oxford canal before reaching Marston Doles and then descending The Napton flight of 9 locks. Now it’s time for a cup of tea to warm us up “one sugar for me please Carolyn” .

It’s still there and doesen’t appear to be going anywhere very soon . I did wonder how they were going to do their blacking of the hull ,but I suppose they won’t bother unless they get a crane in or dig themselves out.

Reaching the top of the Napton flight and we were met by a Canal and River Trust employee who informed us that the third pound up from the bottom was completely empty and it would require water being let down from the top to remedy the situation. He told us to come down through the flight but leave one top and one bottom paddle on each lock open. He in the meantime he went on ahead and set the locks for us to go down.

Halfway down the flight and here are the first Lambs we have seen this year and what a lovely sight and how sweet they look said Carolyn. I said they will look far better in a few months time when they are sat on a plate in front of me surrounded by roast spuds, vegetables ,gravy and not forgetting the mint sauce . Yum yum.

Because the CRT guy had gone ahead it meant that a lot of the pounds were low . But in the end we reckoned that it put another hour on the cruise which wasn’t so bad.

At the bottom of Napton and it’s good to see that someone is trying to use nature to combat bank erosion. Several trees have been planted here where the bank is slowly sliding in to the canal . Hopefully as they grow their roots will spread out and make the bank more secure.

After a good days cruise we picked up a mooring just past The Bridge pub which has been closed down for sometime now .Another early start tomorrow as we have a 2 hour lock free cruise in to Braunston where we have planned to meet up with some friends for a night out. That should be Just the ticket !

                                                                                         Happy Days