Homeward Bound

The last lift bridge this holiday ...

The last section of the south Oxford Canal proved to be the best.  Maybe it was because we had such a glorious day’s weather, but the meandering of the canal through some lovely countryside and the descent down through the locks to Napton on the Hill made for a magical day’s cruising on Friday.  We had two lots of visitors in the evening – Jenny and family drove over from Grantham to see us and our friend Lisa called in on her way back from a visit to Oxford, combining us with a visit to her mum who happens to live just up the Hill from the canal.  We had expected to see both, but not on which day – and they both chose the same one!  Lisa arrived just in time to help with the last lock of the day as the black clouds were gathering, and as Jenny & co arrived the heavens opened.  So we squeezed around the last available table in the Folly, gatecrashing a wedding party, and had a lovely evening anyway.

Napton on the Hill - with buffalo

Loading coal for the National

Lisa came down to see us again on Saturday morning and saw us off through the last Napton lock, after which we headed through Braunston and onto the North Oxford – rejecting a final chance to extend our route into Birmingham on the Grand Union in favour of familiar waters and less locks.  Passing through Braunston Turn completed the Thames Ring which we had begun at the beginning of May.  Up the North Oxford, onto the Coventry at Sutton Stop, catching up with the tail end of the IWA National Festival traffic through Atherstone and Glascote Locks.  It was good to see the gathering of working boats at Alvecote loading coal for the Festival but we couldn’t help but be glad they weren’t in front of us at Glascote; even though we were fairly early there were six boats in front of us and it took an hour and a half to get through the two locks.

Today we came through Fradley Junction – no delays at all, helped by the presence of lots of IWA and BW volunteers assisting at the locks.  I understood from the the BW man who helped us, that while the IWA people could collect donations like any other lockwind, the BW people couldn’t until they became a charity next year!  So how about them taking a collection and adding it the IWA coffers?  But perhaps I misunderstood over the roar of the water and boat engines.  We passed several historic boats on their way to the Festival, including President (in steam) and butty Kildare.  Our pleasure at seeing them was marred by the fact they were moored having a tea break, past the end of the visitor moorings on a blind bend in the bridge hole under the railway at Rugeley, thereby obscuring what limited visibility existed on the turn.  We could see the boats from our side so were approaching slowly, though of necessity on the wrong side of the canal, but the narrowboat approaching (too fast) in the opposite direction between the moored boats on one side and overgrown vegetation on the other had no chance of seeing us, or us him.  We met in the bridge hole and managed to avoid a collision with either of the historic boats – but it was close.  What made it worse was that the crew watched it all happening and no-one said a word to us, in greeting or otherwise, nor did they signal to either of the oncoming boats that another boat was approaching, which they would have seen quite clearly.  I’m sure their working forebears would have been more polite.

Tonight we are moored in a lovely spot alongside the Shugborough Hall Estate.  While we ate dinner, we saw hot air balloons over the parkland, and a deer wading in the canal directly opposite us.  Why is the camera always in the wrong place when you need it?

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