Oxford Canal, Marston Doles ; Friday 3rd July
I have been experiencing Poor T Mobile signal strength over the last two days; I will be including photographs once more when the signal has improved.
Thursday 2nd July.
We did start early this morning and then everybody was thinking the same thing. The good news was that we had all the locks in our favour, apart from the top two at Claydon with only one boat in front of us. Having left the top lock, about a mile further on; there were two boats in front that we had not seen before, they must have only just set off.
The bad news - the one immediately in front was travelling just above tick over speed.
Approaching the Fenny tunnel narrow section, he stopped although the boat in front of him carried on. All three of us could have cleared this section before the oncoming boat was anywhere near; I decided to call it a day when we reached the wider part before the marina. Better by far to find a mooring sheltered by trees and try to stay cool. We had succeeded as the cabin temperature at 8pm was a mere 30 degrees, this was 8 degrees down on Wednesday at the same time.
On hearing a duck with 9 ducklings in tow making a lot of noise and flapping her wings on the water, we had a look through binoculars. Myra had earlier seen a Mink swim across the canal and yes, the duck was chasing the Mink away. Good for her, her ducklings were saved for the time being.
2009 Totals: 305 Locks – 624.5 miles – 14 Bus pass uses
Friday 3rd July
Another 6am start, watched by the duck and her (still!) 9 offspring; the difference being that we saw no boats moving until 9.20am! It was showery, perhaps that was the reason. We saw one of the local BW lengthsmen (or multiskilled in this PC age) bringing the levels up for the start of the day at Marston Doles. We had a chat as we filled up with water; he then set the top lock for us. We have found the BW men on the ground that we have met on our travels to be friendly and helpful. What they do not know about the canal is probably not worth bothering about; they always seem to have little bits of information about the history and construction that we find fascinating.
We went through the second lock and moored below in the shelter of some trees. The idea was to keep out of the Sun, although the wind has strengthened and we are protected from that as a bonus.
2009 Totals: 307 Locks – 632.5 miles – 14 Bus pass uses
