On past Banbury

Tuesday 7th April 2009

Today has been somewhat trying – we’ve all got a little tired, which never helps. There was a strange noise early this morning – I eventually decided that it was some kind of water bird, but until I worked that out I was up and looking out of the window trying to work out what the noise was in the early grey dawn. Alan couldn’t sleep, so went for an early morning constitutional along the towpath.

I managed to crush a finger in the front doors, leaving me with a livid bruise across the nail, and a nagging pain all day. Then I managed to step off the boat onto an insecure towpath at Banbury – and got my right leg into the cold canal up above the knee. I should have known better – it’s one of those kind of things that only tends to happen if you are a bit tired, and your concentration goes a bit.

It’s been a superbly beautiful day – blue skies filled with fluffy white cumulus clouds – the fields beneath, green with new growth or red-brown recently ploughed soil. The canal has been a steely blue, winding from one lift bridge to another. However, we have been working into a cruelly biting wind all day. Which has blown us back into the towpath whenever we have tried to move out to enter a lock.

We passed Nightwatch at Clattercote and at Cropredy nb Alnwick. At Boughton a boat ‘let go’ in a great rush ahead of us as we came out of the lock, then proceeded to travel at a snail’s pace to the next lock. Is there any etiquette about pulling out ahead of another boat? Or is it just a case of if you can get ahead then you can behave as you like? I don’t suppose I’d challenge anyone anyway. I just fume inside.

We filled with diesel at Banbury – Sovereign Boatyard – which was considerably cheaper than other diesel we have seen on this trip. We were offered the free eggs there, but already had more eggs than we can reasonably use. Then we moored near bridge 168 in order for me to visit the Morrison’s supermarket – as someone used to Waitrose prices I was very pleasantly surprised.

We ended up near Kings Sutton – which is near to the M40 motorway and a fairly busy railway. Across the fields is a constant stream of lorries, outlined in lights - some of them with an electric blue stripe along the top. It's only now that I realise that lorries no longer have just headlights.

In our attempts to find a reasonably quiet mooring we pushed on further and further in the gathering gloom, while a nearly full moon rose over the fields. We are now somewhere near Adderbury, the roar of the motorway to the left of us, and the drone of traffic on the Aynho road to the right. We are a good three feet from the towpath, and David is the only one of us who feels confident to spring across the gap.