Catch Up

Apologies for not blogging for a while, dongle problems and no signal have been the reason but we have been having a great time.  We had a couple of days at Cropredy, we ate at both the Red Lion and the Brasenose Arms, food was really good at the Brasenose but something was amiss at the Red Lion, although hardly anyone in the pub they were turning people away as they said they were too busy, the food was ok but the atmosphere was strange, something not quiet right!  From Cropredy we cruised to Aynho, stopping in Banbury.  Banbury is a lovely place to stop the canal passes right through the middle of the town.  Leaving Banbury the locks start to get deeper but the countryside is lovely, we stopped at Aynho, then continued to Thrupp, passing through Somerton Deep Lock (12'), the River Cherwell is never far from the canal and at one point you do cruise along a river section, the canal meanders through meadows, there are some lovely wild flowers along the canal.  On Sunday Janet & Wully came up to see us from Poole, they spent the day with us and we went for a walk along the canal (where else!) and went for lunch at the Boat Inn.  We had a lovely day and it was great to see them and show them the boat.  We had a very early start on Monday and cruised the last few miles into Oxford.  We managed to moor just above Isis Lock, just before the canal joins the Thames.  It was a hot day and we did the tourist trail around Oxford, along with thousands of others, it was very busy.  We ate in the evening at a Italian that we had seen earlier in the day and liked the look of the menu as they did lots of seafood dishes, it wasn't until we sat down to eat that we realised 'Jamies' was one of Jamie Olivers restaurants, the food and atmosphere was great, we had a lovely meal, wine and it was not expensive.  After dinner we walked one of the 'walkers routes' around Oxford, it was still warm but was so much quieter so we saw so much more.  We left Oxford on Tuesday, we knew Pip & Roger (nb Windsong)  were coming down the Oxford Canal so we contacted them to see where they were, they were planning to stop at Aynho, we knew it would be a long day but decided to see how we got on, if there were no lock hold ups etc we thought we could be there for about 6, think we arrived about 6:30!  We had a lovely evening with Pip and Roger, it was great to see you both again, another good meal, this time at the Great Western followed by coffee and lots of chat on Triskaideka. Hopefully the dongle problem is sorted so we can keep the blog up to date!

Somerton Deep Lock

Lots of lift bridges along the way

Aynho Weir Lock

Early Morning Mist

Along the River Cherwell

51 miles 33 locks