To date : 550 miles, 308 locks
Today we planned to leave early. The reality wasn’t quite as early as we
planned but we were on the move not much after 8am. We saw a pair of donkeys waiting patiently at a gate for
their breakfast. Their owner was walking
towards them with 2 buckets in hand.
We had a few locks to do as we wound our way through lovely
countryside. We had a couple of boats
ahead of us so every lock was against us.
We seem to get the same scenario over and over. We pull in behind the boat or two ahead of us
waiting for the lock. One of us goes
ahead to the lock and helps out. Today
we’ve not had a single boat coming down between us and the boat ahead so we tell
the crew of the boat ahead of us to jump onboard and we’ll close the gate for
them. By now another boat is waiting
down on the lock landing behind us. The
crew of that boat will sit on their boat to wait. We’ll close the gate for the boat just gone,
work the lock for ourselves, look to see if any crew members are coming from
the boat behind us…. which today has been “no” on every occasion. We exit the lock, close the gate behind us,
get back on the boat and by about then a crew member from the boat behind will
appear to open the paddles at their end.
Why don’t people help each other out??
It was another very warm day and by the time we reached
Cropredy we had our newly repaired golf umbrella up. We stopped at the rather awkward water point
to fill with water. The landing is a bit
short and has a bend in it. There’s a
bridge at one end and a winding hole at the other. We watched a hire boat have a hard time of it
getting in there as we pulled away. Just
beyond the bridge the boat in front of us moored up. We had a look at the sign and sure enough it
was a 48hr mooring but only big enough for one boat. There’s a narrowing just after where perhaps
there was once a bridge and much to our delight there was mooring just after
that and before the lock landing. It’s a
pretty spot with trees on both sides.
Nice to have some morning and some late afternoon shade. We very soon had a neighbour who just
managed to squeeze in behind us. It’s
always a treat to have a mooring in a village or town where one end will be
open. As we’re first before the lock
landing we only get boats there waiting for the lock. Perfect.
We had a good walk around the village which has plenty of
lovely thatched cottages. There is even
a small antique store in Cropredy. On
the way we checked out the two pubs to choose one for dinner tonight. Our pick was the Brasenose. The owner was a chatty fellow who delighted
in telling us that he lived and taught in Leongatha in Victoria for a time many
years ago. He proudly showed us that he
had a sketched map of Melbourne on the wall.
At the lock there was another very nice lock cottage and
then another cottage with an impressive vegetable garden. Tomorrow we’ll walk further along to check
out the new Cropredy Marina which is yet to be filled with water. We heard that they were granted permission
for the marina but not for a store of any kind.
This was to protect the little village store. We did check out the store but it was so hot
in there we just looked in and went straight out again!
Also, just beside us, but accessed from the road on the
other side is “Cropredy Lock Garden”.
It’s a long and narrow grassed strip with some shade trees, a garden
seat or two, and a wooden outdoor picnic table and seats. We’ll have to make use of that while we’re
here.
I decided we had to put clean sheets on the bed today so I
stripped it this morning and washed them on the way to Cropredy. At one of the locks I ducked inside while
Mick was up at the lock with the boaters ahead of us, and hung the sheets
between the saloon windows as we usually do.
By the time we were moored up at Cropredy near on midday the sheets were
dry. Excellent! Here’s Mick sitting between them trying to
tune the tv. That was a waste of
time. No tv reception, almost no phone
reception, and no internet signal. I
took the “goggle” with me on our walk and found that I could get a weak signal
sitting on a seat beneath the trees on a little road island outside the pub. So that’s where I’m sitting to publish
this blog entry!
It was such a lovely afternoon. We’ve enjoyed watching the boats back and
forth through the locks. Mick spent some
time hanging out the side hatch supervising proceedings. He said he was back seat driving. I must admit it’s a whole different story
watching narrowboat traffic jams when you’re moored up. One hire boat had a tough time trying to
hover in the middle of the canal to wait for the lock so we called out through
the window to drift across and hold onto our boat while they waited. We had a brief chat with them while we
waited.
We enjoyed our dinner at the pub. They had a couple of tables in the shade and
cool breeze at the front. It was a
pleasant place to watch the world go by…. mainly locals coming home from
work.
It’s been the sort of day we always imagined while we waited
all that time to realize our dream.
3 comments:
For me, part of the fun of boating, is to help fellow boaters at locks and spend the time gassing and putting the world to rights, sorry gaining and passing on valuable information.
Tony
You made a wise choice to eat at the Brasenose Arms. When we were in Cropredy earlier in the year we made the mistake of eating at the Red Lion. We abandoned the place after our indifferent first course and moved around to the Brasenose for dessert!
Mike
Nb Duxllandyn
Tony, we agree! What interesting people we've met this way.
Mike, we checked out the menus and made our choice. Good decision it seems.
Cheers, Elly
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