We travelled the very windy windie bit of the Oxford on the 5th, taking ourselves through one of the unique features of a James Brindley designed canal. The section from Fenny Compton to Marston Doles, the top of the Napton flight (the southern end), is sweetly called the Meandering section. The reality is that it twists and turns all over the place. Dear James Brindley, the engineer of the Oxford, was instructed by his commissioning canal company to use as little money as possible. Hence, lift bridges made of wood rather than solid bridges made of brick and stone and - meandering around hills rather than gouging out great cuts or exploding long tunnels. And in the summer, when the Willow, Hawthorne and reeds grow faster than they are maintained, we get sharp blind corners. Wooo - fun! (not). We had a number of near misses with hire boats and bridge holes, but all in all, Elizabeth was able to knit quietly whilst Pete took the tiller.
We did the Napton flight in good time and great laughter. We think we saw every sort of boat from private live aboards like ours, to private boats out for the summer, to private boats out for the weekend, to hire boats, to working barges and even Hotel Boats. The fun here is that one of the Hotel Boat crew was known to us from the Saltisford Arm of the Grand Union. It is so much fun being able to chat on route to people we know!
We moored up outside the Bridge pub (as per usual!) to find it is closed on Mondays. How can a pub be closed???
