Marooned

 

We pulled pins this morning at 07.10 with a little light drizzle which soon turned in to a little light rain. We soon passed the most photographed boat on The South Oxford canal. It has now been here a couple of years after the owner used a digger to hollow out the field and then removing the canal bank and taking the boat into the field. The canal bank was then reinstated and that’s about it , now it’s marooned in the field. It looks like if you own a bit of land next to the canal and you want free mooring this is the way to go..

With Carolyn on steering duty and me lock wheeling we soon arrived at the Napton flight of locks at Marston Doles.

We reckon there must now be nearly 200 Buffalos in the fields next to The Napton flight of locks. One thing that I can tell you and that is that they taste very good after having tried some a few months ago..

At the bottom of Naton we saw Coalboat Auriga. It’s the first time we have ever seen it as it doesn't normally work this area. It seems that it was down here for the gathering at Braunston. We then passed Napton Narrowboats where the diesel there was priced at 99ppl.

We then made the turn left at Wigrams from the South Oxford and on to The Grand Union Canal towards Birmingham .  OK… So the bridge hole is big enough and I missed getting through it in one go. We all occasionally have lapses in concentration, although Carolyn say’s I have more than most people.

We are now back on double locks and we both love these Ham Baker made self dropping paddles, but more about that in a later post . After another good cruise and with the weather improving we decided to call it a day and moored up outside of Ventnor farm marina.The plan tomorrow is to get to Radford Semele where we know there are some good moorings that will be about 6 or 7 hours plus 18 double locks and and then tackle The Hatton flight on the following day.

                                                                                          Happy Days