Nell Bridge

As there are no trains from Heyford Station on Sundays at the present, we made today the car shuffle day. It was a straightforward train journey for Mike back to West Drayton - changing only at Reading. He then walked to the marina, handed in the security key for the car park gates and then drove up the M40 to Lower Heyford.

He left the car there - only having the briefest of conversations with David Dare who was busy coping with broken pump out machinery - before catching a local train back to Banbury. He was back on the boat before 1 o'clock and time for lunch.

Christine spent the morning on a much-need spring clean of all the boat cupboards and was ready with a pile of items ready to throw out at the earliest opportunity.

Although the morning was definitely not the warm spring day that the forecasters had promised us for this weekend it had been a largely dry morning. However, as we made ready to set off real rain arrived and stayed with us all afternoon. It was also blowing a cold wind which made steering difficult in places. Most the route was straight into the direction of the wind and rain! As you will see, the rain made problems for the camera and there are only a few usable ones.

Immediately after setting off we passed through the lift bridge, one of the few that is regularly operated as it is a busy pedestrian route into the shopping centre.

Below the first lock we paused for the sani station and for Christine to dispose of the aforementioned items.

We soon left Banbury behind us and felt the full force of the rain blowing into our faces. There are also plenty of the lift bridges to pass under but the majority that remain - several were demolished before the heritage people took hold of them - look rarely if ever used by the adjoining landowners. The first one after Banbury was rocking alarmingly in the wind and Mike was relieved to see a very strong locking bar that prevented it from being lowered!

A little before Grant's lock we passed an Oxfordshire Narrowboat making ready to set off - Christine had seen them earlier in Banbury - and they followed us down to lock where another boat from the same hire base was just beginning to come up. There was quite a crowd!

The M40 crosses the canal a couple of times and on the second bridge there is a memorial to Paul Hill who was killed working on the construction of the motorway. A sad reminder that even in modern times such work can still be very dangerous.

We also were making much slower progress in most of the pounds below Banbury - something we remembered from past cruising this canal - we had been pleasantly surprised that on the stretch above Banbury from Napton we had made much better speed. As a result it was becoming clear that we would not make our planned destination of Somerton tonight - this was the only possible pace we could find for a church service tomorrow morning - so we pulled in early (just above Nell Bridge Lock) for an overnight stop at a spot that we recalled hotel boats using in the past. At least that meant that we had no difficulty in coming alongside this time!

4.8 miles -3 locks