Suffice it to say that Wils and I have continued on down the Oxford having left our temporary mooring at Calcutt some time ago... So there I am, on my first day cruising single-handedly, and only just around the corner from Calcutt Marina, when DISASTER STRIKES! Well, not really disaster, let's just say I am now well aware of the importance of withdrawing all fenders from the water when entering narrow locks... Amongst the many, many various things on my mind that day, and having never tackled a narrow lock before, it simply slipped my mind. Good thing I hadn't bought that nice, new set of manilla fenders yet! So, two rope fenders lighter than before, on I went, only thanks to the superb help I received from three boaters coming the other way. In all honesty, the generosity and open willingness to help one another that I've found on the canals is incredible and only serves to highlight the lack of it in "normal" bricks-and-mortar life; it's something I hardly realised was so pronounced until I started living on the canal. It really is the case that you can be walking along a main road over a canal and everybody will ignore you in the usual city way, then you move a few metres down onto the towpath beneath the same bridge and everyone acknowledges you! Sometimes, people even smile. Gasp! Of course that's not always the case, but recent experiments have provided convincing results...
Hoping to moor up before the connurbation of Banbury was upon us, we were "mildly displeased" at finding nothing but 48 hour moorings in the centre of town, such is the nature of urban boating I'm sure. Wils and I needed to find something more in the region of 7/14 days, because a visit by train down to the south coast to visit Jem was fast approaching. Moving from the fields of the Oxfordshire countryside into the centre of Banbury is quite a contrasting experience! And there I was confronted by my very first lift bridge, which did indeed require lifting - with only a minor two hundred or so onlookers, shoppers, coffee drinkers etc surrounding me on all sides and on many tiers of shopping centre... Now - here's where I first discovered an issue for single-handers with regard to the operation of lift bridges, which remains unresolved as such; how is one supposed to operate said contraption when the lift arms are on one side of the canal and the moorings on the other? I was saved in central Banbury by being able to moor Wils very cheekily behind the hire boat that lives outside Tooleys Historic Boatyard (that looks disappointingly unhistoric until you get round the back...) which was moored on the same side as the lift arms. Long story short, I got through fine, and found a good spot to moor up just past Bridge 170:
Which happened to be a mere mile's walk from the timber yard, so over the next two weeks I visited Jem (who is coping very well with everything cos she's so brave), bought in lengths of timber and sheets of cement board, which I lugged by hand down the towpath in an extremely manly and energetic way, naturally.
There are a number of interesting walks over the fields around the outskirts of Banbury, this was etched on a footbridge sign:
The "dismantled railway line" was disappointing, I expected to find four children and a dog getting into scrapes and being chased by a ghostly, one-armed signalboxman called Eyepatch Joe, and given that such were my expectations, I was a little put out by the lack of such a scene. But I did meet some very friendly pigs on part of the farm that lies on the footpath route if you leave the canal at lift bridge 172 and head east-ish. The woods just beside the canal there are full of HUGE spiders and make for an excellent weaving patch of ground, the trunks being thin enough to take a loom tie-cord very comfortably (the spiders, as nature's weavers, were clearly a good indication of something appropriate in the air...) Below: a new project begins, a belt this time...
Two more photos from my time near Banbury:
The timber and cement board is, by now, installed as the surround for the wood burning stove to be - well - surrounded by. Only tiling and stove installation to go! But the mornings are getting colder, I can't deny it... Must work faster! Here it is before all of the cement board went on:
I'm having to skim everything that has happened because I have so much time to fit into one post, so here goes:
Recently brewed up another batch of real ale! This is now bottled and "aging" nicely! Prudence Pig Porter is its name, and very tasty it is too!
One of the most attractive lock keepers cottages I've seen, at Somerton Deep Lock, also recently traversed by NB Ubique I believe! Our paths have crossed a great deal recently, it seems!
A photo from my one night moored near Somerton, where the towpath was simply one edge of this huge field populated by cows. And boaters.
Which brings us almost up to the present! Currently moored at Thrupp, within shouting distance of Ubique & Maffi, the latter of the two was waiting beside my mooring when I pulled into Thrupp, always nice to find a familiar face after a long solo cruise, even if you've never seen it before in person! And it really was a long day, about 10 miles on Tuesday, about 9 miles the day before - I don't think 19 miles is too bad for two days work!
A recent venture out into the world surrounding Thrupp lead me to Hampton Gay, an abandoned village, the ruins of the Sixteenth Century Manor House still stand (partially), and there are a number of farm buildings and strange, lock/sluice-like features dotted around the undergrowth if you look hard enough... A fascinating place really, an internet search afterwards reveals that it was cursed. And then burnt down. And there's me skipping gleefully through the remains!
In that last photo; the ground floor window is HUGE from inside! Gives a superb view out onto the grounds... What a renovation project it would make... Hmmmmm....
And finally, just to prove that all sorts of things grow in the hedgerows adjacent to the canals, I found wild hops growing directly beside Bridge 220! Excuse the poor photo!
As for the ubiquitous floating lettuce - at the last three locations I've moored; there has been a perfectly intact lettuce floating in the canal nearby! Is someone laying a trail for me? Is it, in fact, the same lettuce each time, hitching a ride somewhere on Wils? Is it following me?
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteD found so many of those Hops that they are now adorning every spare inch of hanging space in the gally.
The cold is coming!!!!
Regards Chris & Debbie.