Boats start moving early at Thrupp on the Oxford.
The first one heading for Oxford quietly chugged by at 06.15am.
Amazing……….. I got up and made a cup of team!
What was the rush?
Other narrow boat owners have got the right idea if the names of their boat are anything to go by. In the first hour out of Thrupp I saw the following boat names ‘Calm Down’, ‘Relax’, ‘Take you time’, Time stands still’.
It has continued to rain overnight and it does not look promising. Liz and John were all set to join Hallmark and journey with me to The Heyfords. But after a very wet day yesterday out in the Solent they decided ‘another day’.
I decide on a moderately early start so I am away at 8.30am
As you motor away you realise how beautiful Thrupp is with it’s the Boater Inn and its terrace of cottages fronting the canal.
Just along from the mooring comes the former British Waterways yard and an electric swing bridge (you need your British Waterways key to operate).
Then there is a very sharp right hand turn and it is a long chug passed what seems like hundreds of residential boats.
Despite the time there are lots boats about.
There is mostly just room to pass but on one occasion I was forced into a bank to someone who came done the wrong side of a narrow canal. The congestion was not over. A couple of boats decided to use the winding hole and turn and it seemed rather like the M25 and it was only just after none o’clock.
Soon things changed. No more residential boats and you are in the Cherwell Valley. Everything slows and the scenery is gorgorous.
First there are open bits and you see the sides of the valley gently rising and then suddenly you are in what is best described as the emerald wood.with tunnels of overhanging trees.
Today Hallmark managed six locks including the wide lock (with room for three boats alongside each other. A couple of the narrow locks proved immensely difficult. At Bakers lock where the gate would not go right back I got totally stick and I spent a whole hour trying to bump my way in………. this also included reserving out with a great deal of revving up to shift a very stuck Hallmark. In the end I had to undo the shackles on the two front fenders to get through. At Northbrook the gate again would not properly open but I now had ‘leant my lesson’. All locks in future that have stuck gates use the ‘fender up technique’.
There are loads of lovely old canal bridges on route. Some now lead no where.
Part of the bridge structure at Northbook was actually used for a centuries old packhouse route across the River Cherwell before the Oxford Canal for even thought of.
After a couple more heavy showers which always seems to occur when locking Hallmark arrived at Lower Heyford.
Heyford Wharf has a long canal history and is now used as the home to a narrow boat hire fleet. There is a basic village shop and a good café. I recommend the bread pudding.
I moored about two miles further on. It was away from the train line which roared alongside the canal at Lower Heyford.
In the evening I walked back and found Lower Heyford's delightful village. Its pub was the Bell Inn and it produced some of its own bitter and it was rather good.
The local church with its tower was rather stunning.
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