We moved a bit closer to
Cropredy on Saturday afternoon. It was
only three miles and there were no locks but it was long enough to really feel
it on my back so we were sensible and moored up at a quiet spot near Claydon. This was even though Karen did a lot of the
driving; it seems to be the standing that causes the back pain this time.
Just before Claydon is one
of the lift bridges, so typical of the South Oxford canal. If you keep your eyes open on the M40 you
will see it crosses the canal in three places around Banbury. At the two spots south of Banbury you should
also catch a glimpse of lift bridges.
This particular one at Claydon is usually left open (up) by the farmer
so is always a welcome sight.
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Typical views on the South
Oxford – lift bridge and cows
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Approaching Boundary lift
bridge
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Karen leaving Fenny Compton ‘tunnel’
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There were two tunnels at
Fenny Compton when the canal was built but they were soon removed as there were
a constant series of rock falls. The
stretch is still called Fenny Compton tunnel and, as it is only just wide
enough for two boats to pass, extra care has to be taken when navigating this
section.
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The bridge between the two
original tunnels
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There are some residential
moorings on the offside at Claydon that we always think would be a nice quiet
spot if we had to settle for a permanent mooring. We remembered rescuing a boat that had come
adrift here the first time we came up the Oxford canal. We recognised the last boat on the moorings –
it was Sam and her husband – we exchanged waves and had a brief chat as we
passed them. They have just moved there
from their previous mooring on the Calcutt flight at Napton where we first met
them.
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Our Saturday night mooring
at Claydon
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In the afternoon, Karen and
Buddy walked back to Fenny Compton to get the car whilst I rested my back for a
couple of hours.
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| We are moored near a bridge with a typical boater/walker/cyclist layby where Karen can park |
I said the other day that
waterfowl gather by the hatches as soon as
we moor and Saturday was no exception.
We had seen hardly any waterfowl when we were cruising but a family of
swans appeared as soon as we moored up.
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Cygnets and their parents
hoping for food
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Disappointed family
setting off to find food elsewhere
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We have moored at this
spot before and spent a pleasant few days here on our previous boat in the days
when we were both still working. Talking
about mooring spots I had a nice note from Wendy and Austin the other day. They were finding this blog useful in finding
places to moor as they are on a trip down the River Avon at present. We first got to know them when we were first looking
for safe overnight moorings in the Birmingham area. As they had a lot of cruising experience in
the area they provided us with lots of safe mooring spots and other useful,
local information. It's been nice to be able
to reciprocate the help they gave us several years ago.
I know there hasn’t been a
blog update since Wednesday but that’s because I spent most of Thursday and
Friday flat on my back with the odd stroll outside with Buddy to help loosen it
up.
On one of the strolls on Thursday
this boat came past far too quickly – it was creating a high wash which is very
harmful to the banks. Not only do the
banks erode and potentially breach, the mud washed away settles on the canal
floor thus making it shallow and difficult to navigate and moor. I asked the driver to slow down but he didn’t
seem to care. I did ring the hire boat
company and send them a picture so they could reinforce the need to go slow.
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Hire boat going too fast
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I have to say that it’s
not just hire boats that go too fast, we often see holiday boaters doing it
too. They are probably on a mission to
get to the next pub before the evening suddenly realising that have to put
their foot down too. I also posted the
picture on one of the boater Facebook groups and was really surprised that
three people chose to believe the picture was fake.
I had already decided to
leave most of the boater Facebook groups as so many have become full of
negative posts these days so it’s getting just like watching or reading the
news. It seems that positive news is a
thing of the past. Anyway, I have now
left most of the groups, just keeping to the continuous cruisers group, the
nature group for boaters and the group sponsoring the clean-up and use of the
Birmingham Canal Navigations.
Hopefully we will get to Cropredy later on Sunday afternoon.
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