Beautiful though it was, we pulled the pins from Nells Bridge on Bank Holiday Monday and made our way to Upper Heyford, which, it turns out, is just as lovely, if not more so.
Dave’s daughter Frankie has been staying with us on the boat over the bank holiday; Harry has been mechanic-ing at the 2CV 24hr endurance race at Snetterton, and it’s been wonderful having her aboard.
We stopped at Aynho Wharf for water and just happened to find a group of our mates having their lunch at the pub. It wasn’t quite the coincidence it sounds like; they’d been at the 2CVGB National at Whitney and we’d arranged to have them as crew for a day. Coops, Carole, Autumn, Tristan and Nikki squeezed in, making a crew of 8!
Our trip rook us through Sommerton Deep lock which, as its name implies, is, er, deep. 12’ deep to be exact. Locks are usualy 6 or 7’ ish; this is like something out of Mordor!
You go down and down and then down some more. The bottom gate is huge and it took all our crew to open it. Nikki and Autumn had a walk along the towpath and collected a bag full of elderberries to make wine with. Talking of making things – Ann-Marie and Frankie collected and made a delicious batch of Hedgrow Jelly. We’ve tried it in pancakes, on scones and in sandwiches; no faults so far but we feel compelled to carry on in the name of research.
We’ve given Ken a freshen-up, moved him down to Upper Heyford and put him back on Ebay. Someone out there must want him. We’re going to
Shackerstone Festival this weekend in him with a “For Sale” notice in his window. Fingers crossed, eh?
1 comment:
Well, I can safely say that 'Ken' now has a loving new family to look after him. We are a family of three with an 11 year-old boy who is a chorister at the Cathedral in Oxford, and we are looking forward to enjoying Ken for the rest of his life!
Post a Comment