Down off the summit

 After yesterdays somewhat damp and gloomy traverse of the South Oxford canal summit, today has been a joy.  Fortified by a bumper meal of belly pork with lovely crunchy crackling ( and a yummy little black pudding bon bon) with colcannon and kale at the Wharf last night,

we set off this morning in unexpected sunshine.  We've boated between Fenny Compton and Cropredy a good few times before, but I had forgotten what a pretty stretch it is.   Of course there's Fenny tunnel which thankfully had no boats coming the other way, but what struck me was the number of lovely offside moorings that have been created, with little orchards and shepherd's huts.

I was surprised to see volunteer lockies  at the Claydon flight.  Never seen them there before. Suddenly after a very quiet morning there seemed to be plenty of boats on the move and opportunities for exchanging gossip at the locks.

Something else I hadn't noticed  before were these plates on (comparatively) recently replaced lock gates.

We were looking for a good bit of towpath for our Cobb BBQ tonight and settled just above Broadmoor lock just north of Cropredy.

Just across the canal was another of those lovely offside moorings, this time with a gypsy caravan.

 

How nice is that?

Rain is promised for tomorrow so we plan to start reasonably early to get to Banbury for lunchtime.  We haven't been there since the canal side was redeveloped so it'll be interesting to see how it looks. 

(There will now be a short interlude, as  Kath has just appeared with a glass of Pimms with half a fruiterers shop in it)

Later:  

Lovely, now where was I? In other news I notice that Herbie's BMC engine has clocked up 6775 hours.  If that were a car engine I reckon that would be about 200,000 miles.  I occasionally jot down the engine hours and the date when I do oil changes.  I must look back and see if it tells us how many hours we've done in particular years.  You know me, I love a bit of data analysis. This year it feels like we've got our canal mojo back after a few quieter years and we're eager to do more.