Friday 15/5 Fenny Compton to Bridge 170 past Banbury

No report for yesterday. Stupidly I strained my back when I missed a stair going down into the boat at the first of the locks on Wednesday. By the end of the day I was cactus, so as It was awful weather yesterday we decided to stay put at the des des that is Fenny Compton and give my back a chance to settle down.

So we got underway this morning at 8.30am, for a mere 150metres, where, for the first stop of the day, we had a water fill.

We set off again, passed the boats moored at Fenny Compton

Passed this, for a narrowboat, unusually coloured boat

On through the narrow sections which consist of deep cuttings, part of which when the canal was originally built was a 1000yd long tunnel. However the rock through which the tunnel was bored was very brittle and the tunnel a bottle neck so the top of the tunnel was taken off. After the tunnel that is no longer a tunnel is this elegant cast iron turnover bridge. 

One of the very few straight stretches on the Oxford Canal

Through wooded cutting

And suddenly we were in open country again

We then encountered the first of many life bridges on the Oxford. hopefully most will be open like this one

We then reached the top of Claydon Locks (the first of today's locks) where we were accosted by a swan family and told, in no uncertain terms, to stand and deliver.

At the bottom of Claydon Locks looking back to where we had come from

Old stables for barge horses at Clattercote wharf, now housing what looks like naked scarecrows

We first spotted 80yo Mr Sutcliffe when we came up behind him just as he had entered Broadmoor Lock. I closed the gate and worked the lock for him. He puttered of as I started to refill the lock for us to descend. We stopped for a bite of lunch and next caught up with Mr Sutcliffe 2 locks further on. He was struggling to open the gate at the top of the lock so Lawrence launched me off Aqualife ( usually I am under strict instructions not to jump, this time I had to leap) to help. It took both Mr Sutcliffe and me to open the gate so we started to chat, as you do at locks, and we chattered and we chattered so Lawrence tied up Aqualife and joined in.

Mr Sutcliffe has been on most of the major waterways in the UK in his immaculate little clinker boat. This time he is on the Oxford for a week. (Lawrence was enchanted) . He has a bad hip and trouble walking but that doesn't stop him climbing up and down the slippery awful ladders in the locks to get on and off his little boat. Mr Sutcliffe made our day, he is an inspiring and absolutely delightful old man.

We helped him through the following locks but he eventually left us behind when we stopped in Banbury for some victualling.

Some more stunning countryside

Our last sighting of Mr Sutcliffe

We stopped in Banbury at the safe 48hr visitor moorings bang in the middle of Banbury with shopping right beside the canal. I was keen to stay the night but L. Was keen to push on, so shopping put away we immediately had to tackle a life bridge and a lock in the peak hour pedestrian traffic which is always slightly nerve wracking. However we were soon back into the countryside

And we moored up for the night about 6.30pm toward the end of the line of boats after the lift bridge

Duck for dinner.

P.S. I took Aqualife through 2 locks today