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Karen’s walk from our latest
mooring to get to the car – she thinks it’s spooky in the dark but knows it can’t
be, otherwise I’d have to accompany her 😉
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When we were walking back
from the pub on Sunday, there was a boat in a lock and they called out to
us. It was a couple we have met a few
times over the years but never spent a lot of time together. They have a house in the next village to where
our house is and, like us, they rent theirs out whilst they are living on their
boat. Their boat is called Brindley and
we know two other boats with the same name in the area so we often get into
embarrassing conversations when we see a Brindley as we always think it’s the
same people even when we know they look different!
Monday was a day of going
for short walks between the showers, which were really heavy at times; at one
stage, poor old Buddy was trying to shelter inside a hedge. In the evening, we went to play bridge with
our Stratford ladies. This was the first
week we have played for a while because of my back but it was fine so I feel
practically back to normal now, I even drove home as well.
It was time to move on on
Tuesday otherwise we could be accused of overstaying at the mooring in the
bottom pound at Napton. Karen and I both fancied mooring at the reservoir at Calcutt for a couple of weeks and as I would only have one lock to do on
my own we both felt my back would be OK.
After going down the lock
(with no ill effects on my back) I stopped to take on water. For some reason it was really busy, there was
a boat waiting to get in behind me and he was blocking the bridge…
…there was already another
boat at the water point and one waiting behind him:
I took advantage of the
wait and put the washing on so at least I could replenish the water when it was
my turn. It didn’t take long and I was
soon on the move again. The wind was
getting quite strong but I knew it was going to be worse on Wednesday which is
another reason for moving on. I was
getting a bit concerned about mooring up on my own at the reservoir as the wind
can whip across there and last time I nearly lost the boat. To make it more difficult you have to find
suitable trees to moor to as it is on the offside, i.e. no towpath and
therefore no places for mooring pins or hooks. Mind you, that’s one of the reasons we love
mooring there as it is not on the towpath and therefore you can go all day
without a single person walking past the boat.
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A better view of the
windmill at Napton-on-the-Hill as we left the water point
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Napton visitor moorings
below the lock were practically empty – It’ll be a different story in the
coming months as it’s a popular spot for people like us who continuously cruise
through the winter. It’s near a water
point and had good parking for cars as well as boats.
After leaving Napton I
came to Napton junction which is also known as Wigrams turn. This is where the Oxford canal meets the
Grand Union canal which heads off to the north into Birmingham. Heading east the two canals are joined until
Braunston, where the Oxford canal heads north to Coventry and the Grand Union
turns south to London to meet the River Thames at Brentwood. As we are heading for Birmingham I turned
onto the Grand Union.
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About to turn left onto
the Grand Union from the Oxford canal
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Soon after the junction is
the reservoir and I saw that there were already two boats moored up where we
wanted to be. In the end, it was
fortuitous as I was having a little trouble mooring in the wind – I didn’t want
to put my back out again – Paul came out of one of the boats and held a line
for me as I moored up. He and his
girlfriend have a boat each and they moor here whenever they can as well.
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View across the reservoir
from our mooring
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In the afternoon, Buddy
and I walked along the canal to Stockton and back. I checked my log and my back must have been
bad for a good few weeks – the last time I did locks on my own was at the end
of July, here on the Grand Union.
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