Category: Continuous Cruising

I’ve finally made it. This is the final northernmost part of my journey on this stretch of the Oxford canal.

Going any further than Varney’s lock, the next stop up, takes you up a flight of locks called Claydon Flight and into Warwickshire.

Above Claydon Flight

The communications are not good, little windey lanes, bad parking. Added to that, the mooring is poor until you get to Fenny Compton which is the first village in Warwickshire.

I don’t like Fenny Compton. It does have some positives, like a marina and pub. The 14 day mooring is often full, meaning you have to go out into the wilds to moor up. Fenny itself is the last stop before you get to Napton, which is a good 8-10 miles away. In between, there is virtually nothing, just fields and HS2. Lovely cruising country. I’m not cruising, I’m living day-to-day. Doing day-to-day stuff, and for that purposes, it’s pretty, and pretty impractical.

For this reason, I don’t go above Claydon as it’s simply a waste of time.

Suits me fine.

Prolonged stay in Banbury

There was a canal fare. I overstayed a little, just one week so I could hang around and go the fare which was staged over Saturday and Sunday 5/6th.

Ventured out in Banbury a few times to sample the nightlife entertainments. Went to this bar place called Ugly Face, or Baby Face, or Mug Face. The guy that owned it had started it with his family and grown it organically from a coffee shop into a bar. Always seemed to be people in there which is more than could be said for a lot of the other, brewery sponsored pubs in Banbury. Definitely worth a visit if you happen to be in town.

The weather

Whilst I was in Banbury was absolutely shocking. Where I’m located is up toward the top end as you’re driving out of town. It’s next to what they used to call the old Alcoa factory, a big employer in times gone by.

Mooring up here, you’re out of town and due to the proximity of the nature reserve and the relative quite of the grazing field on the left and the non-developed industrial land of the old Alcoa factory, it’s pretty quite. If I want to walk into town it might take around 20mins.

The Cherwell is also close and there is a small stream that runs through the woods that feeds it. During the rains, I took these pictures.

And here’s one on the exit stream to the reservoir.

As you can see, the area virtually turned into one big lagoon. And remained that way for some days.

The Cherwell had flooded the area to the South of Spiceball. Lidl carpark was under 4ft of water. Also, the water-point and elsan area.

Remember these people? Under the bridge? All their stuff got flooded. That area under the bridge where you can see them standing was under about 3 foot of water.

I guess all their gear got damaged or ruined. I feel pretty bad for them.

I don’t think I saw them again.

Continue reading “Here in Cropredy”

Welcome to Banbury!

When I went down to the car this morning, someone had parked very close behind me. Maybe 4-6 inches away. I moved the car to do my shopping, and parked it up again to unload and noticed the scratch damage on the bumper. This has appeared since I parked it yesterday at about 4pm.

There’s some real scumbags around. For sure.

Banbury’s newest edition

Are these under the bridge people.

They’ve set up camp next to the CRT waterpoint. During the course of the day, they drink and urinate and generally relax or look around in the bins.

I arrived on Sunday. They looked like regular churchgoers.

Had a brief conversation with the one pictured reading, as it happens, a communication from the Police. He read it aloud whilst I was eating my lunch. The other’s had gathered around to hear. Basically, they’d been told to move on, or they would be moved on. He didn’t go into the reasons, just read out that was the upshot and the dates.

When I was putting my glass in the recycling, one of the guys shuffled up and had a piss in the corner right next to me. Like it was a public cubicle. Didn’t even go under the bridge. Had his piss, went back and carried on with his stongbow super-strength.

So yeah, another great selling point to the attractions of Banbury!

Continue reading “Adventures in Banbury”

Next to the M40.

Probably about 500m from here. There’s kind of a hillock separating us, but you can still hear it, more or less, depending on the wind.

Went cycling around Banbury which is where I took the photo for this post.

Whilst working there the other day, I saw this?

I didn’t capture the first part on my phone, but the larger spider was making the web when the other smaller one came from a fissure in the wall and attacked it!

Whilst I went to the car to get my phone, it had wrapped it up.

I’d not seen that before.

Also, I saw this badger. It was running toward me over the roadbridge and clearly didn’t hear me coming over the sounds of the traffic.

Moved

Only a parish, which is the requirement by the CRT.

In the meadows, there is no parish. I guess here in Twyford, there are a few houses and a little bit of industry.

Continue reading “Back in Twyford Wharf”

Not Sumerton this time, more up toward King’s Sutton. Close to Banbury.

Close to the M40 as well. Constant sound of the motorway here. Still, it looks nice. There’s not many boaters around, as like the title says, it’s in the fields.

It’s a nice stop. It makes a change being almost completely on your own. The solar panels like it here also and with the lack of hedges or trees make the whole day a charging day.

Continue reading “In the meadows”

My time in Somerton Meadows finished. What a pretty place it is.

Whilst walking back to pick the car up on my first night. I took these photos.

I’ve not seen a glow-worm in the UK for years.

These were just under the railway bridge on the towpath close to Heyford. When you pick them up, they’re about the size of a wasp! They don’t sting like one though, they were fairly docile. I put him back on his leaf after having a quick look at him.

Just goes to show, not all the insects have died out…. Yet.

Somerton

I stayed in Somerton for the full 2 weeks and left on Sunday.

I don’t think it rained once but the farmer did put the cows back in the field which meant we had the additional obstacle of cow-pats to negotiate. The bull was in there too. I only saw him once: when I was bringing my shopping and laundry back. I didn’t want to walk around the cows, which were all bunched up, so I shooed them out of the way. To my surprise, in the middle of the bunch as the cows moved out of the way, a big bull stood looking back at me!

He’s fairly docile specimen. I think he thought I was going to round him up using his nose ring, but I just continued forging through the cow heard with my heavy shopping bags back to the boat.

View’s down onto the floodplain.

It’s a nice spot.

Continue reading “Somerton and 9 hours in Aynho”