We left our overnight mooring at seven, yes 7:00am this morning, the five Claydon locks were despatched in pretty short order without meeting another boat for a while.
One of the gate pivots at Varney’s Lock looked a bit wonky so I took a picture to send to BW.
At one lock we met a boatload of young folk approaching us so I opened the gates for them, one of the guys told me it was his first time on a narrowboat and I ventured to ask whether they had hired or perhaps borrowed it as it had no livery. Oh, it belongs to my friend’s grandparents he said, Prunella Scales & Timothy West!
By the time we reached Cropredy the world was starting to wake up there was a flotilla of young canoeists and at the lock we met two crews there who told us they were from Aynho, at the next lock we met nb Carpe Diem and to their surprise, I asked if there was anyone left at Aynho. How did I know they were from Aynho? We almost bought a boat with the same name so it had stuck in my mind.
By lunchtime we were in Banbury and moored up on the Quays, we did some shopping, tidied the boat and caught the train down to Heyford and collected our car in preparation for receiving our Aussie guest tomorrow.