Oxford to Cambridge race above Claydon Locks

 

The weather has continued to be good with only one heavy rain shower overnight. We have been down to Banbury where we met Simon,Debs and Andy on Sunday for lunch and a short trip down through the town lock to the winding hole to turn the boat and back to Banbury to drop them off. A very pleasant time indeed.

 

We left Banbury at 8am this morning and had a glorious days boating but the wind did pick up a bit in the afternoon. We travelled 7.5 miles and did 12 locks in 6 hours. A lot of boats around but mostly coming down the flight which made our life much easier.

 

Tonight we have moored above Claydon lock flight just before bridge 143. As I was reading in the cratch a rowing eight came past and then stopped by the bridge- you don't see these on the canal at all. They were going by canal and river from Oxford to Cambridge in a week. Although some parts of the canal are to narrow or winding so they break the boat down into sections and move it by road- in particular the top section of the South Oxford from Fenny Compton to Marston Doles.

 

 

The rowing 8 getting caught in the trees

Our mooring for tonight from bridge 143

The local moorhen kept coming on board to look around

and then left as he had come on board.

The ultimate mushroom

Our mooring by Castle Quay shopping centre in Banbury from the footbridge to the carpark.

Napton locks and beyond

 

The weather window looked good so we upped sticks and came up to the boat last Tuesday and decided on a short trip down the South Oxford canal to. Banbury and back as we have a christening to go to on the 23 September. Life goes on which is a very good thing to look forward to in a positive way. My brother passed away at the beginning of August peacefully at home after a very short illness. It is his new grandson that is being christened so we can look back- but we can all look forward to the new life to come.

 

We had a good trip up the Napton flight in warm sunshine with plenty of boats coming down. We arrived at the top after 2 1/2hours to find a further 6 boats waiting to go down. It has been very busy with loads of boats around as we made our  way to Fenny Compton- we must all be out expecting glorious autumn sunshine. It hasn't been bad with only one really heavy shower Wednesday evening after we had stopped for the day.

 

A close up view of Napton on the Hill Windmill which is usually in the distance on most photos.

I just love "the play on words" names for boats.

A farm on the way up the Napton flight has a herd of water buffalo for the supply of mozzarella cheese

Hotel boats Snipe and its butty Taurus making their way down Napton flight.

The view of our mooring on Wednesday evening from bridge 123 in glorious evening sunshine- we are the dot in the distance before the rain arrived.

Gloriana at the Paralympics

 

We have not yet been able to go cruising as our son and partner managed to get tickets to the Paralympics for last Friday. It was a fantastic day in glorious sunshine where we watched athletes competing at the highest level after overcoming all obstacles put in front of them. Everything was so well organised from the transport arrangements to the happy and helpful volunteers, It was

 great to be part of it and to be British- we really really did it well.

 

 

 

A view from our morning seat in the Olympic Stadium

The stern of Gloriana

 Gloriana was moored in the centre of the Olympic village on the River Lea. The Queen's Row Barge Gloriana was commissioned by Lord Sterling and built by Mark Edwards who runs Richmond Bridge Boathouse who specialise in wooden boats.

A plague on the walkway through the park records the amount of rubbish that had to be removed from the River Lea