Rest of Trip

26th October

With Alice still on board and keen to 'do some locks' we set off with a rendezvous confirmed for mid day at Nells Bridge Lock. There was a surprising amount of traffic about for this time of year, although it is half term week, despite being after the end of Summer Time.

Only five minutes late we arrived as planned and picked up Ellie as we progressed through the lock! Having arrived from an over night stay with her dad (although her mum brought her to meet us) she managed to arrive without trainers and just her light shoes!

With a much earlier sunset now, we pressed on and were please how well Alice remembered how locks are worked. Ellie had several sessions at steering, including a tricky section around Aynho: first a narrow former lift bridge abutment, then the moored boats at Aynho Wharf which were moored leaving only just enough room by the road bridge.

We arrived at Allens Lock - the intended meeting point for Adrian and Joanna to collect the two girls before setting off for their holiday in France on the overnight ferry. Alice opted to go for a walk with Grandad to check out where the car would arrive. She reported back to Ellie and Granny (and later to her Mum and Dad!) that it had been a great walk because she had been able to jump in all the puddles and tread through the mud!

Well after dark a call on the mobile phone revealed that the new arrivals had walked past the boat on the opposite bank without seeing the bridge! Ellie and Grandad went on a rescue mission. It seems that plans based on paths shown on Google did not take into account that the towpath was the other side and that this towpathwas rather muddy! Still, all was eventually resolved and the family set off in a heavily laden car for the ferry.

Alas no pictures for today - looking after a boat and two youngsters took up all our attention!

27th October

We quickly completed the last short run back to Lower Heyford where we parked the boat on its permanent mooring for the winter. The rest of the day was allocated to sorting out ready to leave it and completing one or two maintenance tasks. This involved a break for a trip up to Banbury for a few items.

We were still washing down the outside of the boat as darkness fell. Fortunately it had been a bright, and reasonably warm, day but fast becoming chilly as night fell. At least we built a better fire in the stove this time!

28th October

Final unloading of all that needs to go home and a quick clean through and we thought we almost ready to leave just before 10 am. Only the services to close down and the water tank to empty. Little did we know that it takes an hour to empty out a tank even one which had not been re-filled for a couple of days! Just after 11 we set off, with regrest that it will be well into the new year before we can cruise once more. Perhaps we will stay overnight on a visit to Oxford at some stage.

Whilst still at Lower Heyford, it had been a bright and quite warm morning, after an overnight frost but after about an hour into our return trip heavy rain began to fall and it was definitely klaet autumn and early winter feel!