Cropredy to Newbold on Avon. South Oxford Canal. Grand Union Canal. North Oxford Canal.

While we were in Ireland, for various reasons, we decided to get the work on Legend done at Stoke Boats. We messaged Russ at the boat yard, who said to get over there as quick as we could so that he could get us out of the water and see what needed doing. So as soon as we got back it was full-on boating up the South Oxford, the North Oxford, the Coventry and the Trent and Mersey.

We’d done our usual Birmingham airport parking hack, i.e. on the side of the road in Marston Green, so after a late flight, a twenty minute walk back to the car and a quick whizz round a 24hr Tesco, it was midnight by the time we got back to Legend. Good to be home though.

Despite the late night and the chilly morning, we were up and away early, heading up the Cropredy locks towards Napton in the beautiful Autumnal sunshine.

Apparently everyone else had the same idea and by the time we got to the Claydon flight - where a couple of volunteer lockies were keeping a tally board -  we were the eighth boat going up.

As we carried on we began meeting more and more boats going the other way as well. The impending rain that was forecast for the rest of the week probably had a lot to do with it, but we couldn’t remember the last time we’d seen so many moving boats in one day. It was all very sociable though, lots of chatting at the locks with happy hirers and summer cruisers on their way home. We’re going to miss this.

Busy boats at Fenny Compton.

The new HS2 bridge at the top of the South Oxford.

With all the movement, the summit was really shallow and slow going, so it was a relief to get to Marston Doles without getting stuck. We’d planned to moor up at the top, but as it was so shallow we thought it would be prudent to drop down a couple of the Napton locks before stopping.

Napton Holt, two locks down the flight.

Lovely views and a great sunset.

Another bright and early start the next morning got us quickly down the remaining Napton locks and onto the services at the bottom.

The water buffalo at Napton. the heard is so much bigger than last time we were there.

Napton's iconic windmill

We were soon through Braunston...

...and onto the North Oxford heading for Hillmorton where we’d arranged for Lindsay and Paul to come over for dinner that evening. They have a mooring near Rugby, so we’d never be any closer and it would possibly be the last chance they’d have to say goodbye to Legend. It was a fabulous evening, Ann-Marie’s home-made pies went down particularly well, and we had a really good catch up with two of our longest standing boaty friends.

Dave was up and cracking the whip again in the morning and we were soon down the Hillmorton flight.

Hillmorton Locks reputed to be the busiest on the network.

We were only going through Rugby to Newbold, but we had a busy day planned, so it was really frustrating to find ourselves stuck behind an old chap going so slowly that Dave had to keep knocking Legend out of gear because even on tick-over we were catching him up.

Busy through Rugby

Sooooo sloooow!

He was fully aware of us behind him, but made no effort to allow us to go past, and it's very bad etiquette to pass someone without being waved on. Luckily there was a mooring space just before the pub in Newbold so we pulled over while Matey-boy crawled off towards the tunnel. Dave rushed off to the bus stop to go and get the car from Cropredy, then had to run back for the car keys, then missed the bus and had to wait for an hour for the next one. While he was gone Ann-Marie started packing as much stuff as we could live without into boxes and bags ready to go into the car as soon as he got back. We were going camping for the weekend, first for one night at Steve and Annemarie’s in Sutton Courtnay, where we’d blagged a night in one of their tents, and then two nights in West Wittering, near Chichester, where we were joining the Pompey Puddleducks 2cv club for their annual camp. Our van was at Sutton Courtnay so we were swapping more of our possessions for our camping gear while we were there. Ann-Marie ran out of boxes before she ran out of stuff, but she still did an amazing job emptying out under the bed and thinning out everywhere else. When Dave got back he parked in the pub car park and we began carting everything down the tow path. We did really well, and had the car stuffed and were on the road by about 4pm. We arrived at Camping by the River just in time for dinner with out mates, followed by an evening in the wood fired hot tub and a night in a proper bed in Dottie. 

After a hard few stressful days, being pampered like that was just exactly what we needed. We’re so lucky to have such amazing friends!

On Friday morning we swapped most of what we’d brought with us in the car for our camping kit then had breakfast with Steve and Annemarie before carrying on south to Wick’s farm in the sunshine. We got the tent up and spent the afternoon catching up with Karen & Andrew, along with lots of our old friends, and just chillin’ in the sunshine. That evening we joined everyone else for the famous Big Buffet, followed by an early-ish night.

We nearly cried off parkrun in the morning, but had a word with ourselves and went over to Bognor Regis for what is becoming our annual south coast run.

We both got PBs there, and Ann-Marie was only 30 seconds off her all time PB, so very chuffed with ourselves.

From there we went to Bosham, where the club convoy was headed. We got there just in time to see them arrive, then went to a café for brunch.

After a walk round the harbour we went back to the café with Fran & Sean for coffee and cake.

Would you drive past this sign and park there?

Beautiful Bosham harbour.

Some very helpful young men waded in and pushed it out just after this.

Back on site there were Christmas themed games, a fancy dress competition and then later on more food on the BYO barbecue.

Santa and his reindeer (AKA Elaine & Steve and their grandkids) in the fancy dress.

Karen, Fran & Ann-Marie. BFF.

That was followed by prize giving and a raffle where we won an electric car polisher, a folding step and a pinny! All in all it was a pretty terrific day.

It rained overnight, so on Sunday morning we packed everything up, but left the tent for as long as possible in the hope that it would dry out. Luck was on our side and we just managed to get it down and packed away dry before it rained again in the afternoon. After lots of goodbyes we drove over to Karen’s for a brew, where we met up with Mum & Dad who came over to see us before we went left. On the way home we had a quick stop back at Steve & Annemarie’s and put all our camping gear back in the van. After all the rain over the weekend the lane down to the field was really muddy and slippy, but we got in and out OK and were back on board Legend by about nine-thirty. We still had a fair way to go to Stoke on Trent, four long boating days at the very least, so once again we were straight to bed with the electric blanket and an alarm set for dawn.    

Thrupp to Cropredy. South Oxford Canal.

 A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks, Dear Reader, and most of it was expensive.

We found a garage within walking distance of Thrupp and got the car fixed. Again. The mechanic did the teeth sucking thing which - as everyone knows - adds £200 to the bill. Apparently the front struts on middle sized Citroens and Peugeots are really not designed to cope with modern roads. (For ‘Modern’ read ‘badly maintained and covered in pot-holes’) Of course driving up and down a mile of dirt track to a glamping site for six weeks did nothing to help the situation, but that’s done now and we’re back on the road. Wiser and poorer, but mobile.

Ivan had booked a survey at Enslow marina, just up the cut from Thrupp, so while the car was in the garage we made our up above Baker’s lock where we spent the night ready to go in first thing in the morning.

Working through the strange diamond shaped lock at Shipton-on-Cherwell

Going upstream on the lovely little River Cherwell.

We were at the marina for eight o’clock, but it was just before eleven by the time they got Legend on to the trailer.

Gibralta Bridge at dawn

Enslow Marina

Waiting to be hauled out.

Enslow's hydraulic boat trailer.

Half way there. It would have been easier if we'd emptied the water tank, but they managed.

Up on the hard standing.

We had a quick chat with the surveyor, opened all the access panels and explained where everything was and how it all worked. He said it would take about six to seven hours for a full pre-purchase survey, so we left him to it and went to Whitney for the afternoon.

Jim and Jen, who we first met on the G&S many moons ago just happened to be in Whitney visiting their daughter before heading off to Aus, so we got in touch and arranged to meet them for coffee. It was lovely to catch up and learn a bit more about their lives.

Jim & Jen in Whitney. Lovely people.

After that we had a chippy lunch and a Waitrose coffee before going back to find out how the survey went.

Not good news. The ultra-sound examination had revealed some thinning of the steel base plate and reccomended gettimg some remedial work done before the sale went through.

The surveyor showing Dave what he'd found.

We were really shocked, previous surveys hadn’t picked up any problems and we thought we were all good. However the surveyor explained that most dry docks and slipways can’t lift boats high enough to gain proper access to the underneath, so all they can do in those circumstances is randomly reach under with the ultrasound probe. Enslow’s hydraulic trailer makes a visible inspection possible, so nothing gets missed.

Ivan rang later on and, as we expected, said that although he really liked the boat, he needed somewhere to live straight away and didn’t have time to wait for repairs to be done, so he was pulling out.

We had a rather glum evening up on the trailer messaging all the other interested parties and coming round to our new reality.

In the morning we went off to Bicester for a head-clearing parkrun and came back just in time for Legend to go back in the water. The boatyard staff couldn’t find the bung for keeping the water out when the exhaust gets submerged as the back end goes in, but a bit of deducting on Dave’s part discovered it half way down the slipway, where it had been shot out when the surveyor started the engine with it still in the exhaust. The weather was in sympathy with our mood and it was grey and cold as we made our way back Thrupp. We turned round and reversed under the lift bridge onto the seven day mooring rings and pondered what we needed to do next over the rest of the weekend.

On Monday morning we phoned round a list of boat yards to see if any of them could (a) do work on a base plate, and (b) get us in fairly quickly. Most of them couldn’t fit us in till the spring, and we soon boiled it down to two. Either James Marshall at Warwickshire Fly boats (although James couldn't get us up on his own slip, he could work on us 'next-door' at Calcutt) or Russ at Stoke Boats. Our coal boating friend Brian, who we stayed with in Bollington a couple of years ago, couldn’t praise Russ high enough, so although James was closer, we decided to put in some big boating days and get Legend up to Stoke-on-Trent.

Before we left Thrupp we drove over to Delapre park in Northampton for lunch with Diane and Richard.

Nightmare topiary at Delapré Park

Diane and Richard, more lovely people.

It was a bit grey, but we had a lovely stroll down to the lake and a very pleasant lunch in the café. We drove back and left the car in Kirtlington then walked back along the very overgrown and skinny towpath to Thrupp, where we pulled the pins and retraced our steps up the canal, up the River Cherwell, past Enslow, and on to Pigeon Lock. We had planned to go further on, but it was seven o’clock by then so we tied up at the bottom.

The next morning our plan was to go to Aynho, but the weather was better than the forecast so we forged ahead and got up to King’s Sutton before we packed up for the day.

We had a viewing booked for the following afternoon, so we had an early start with blackberry porridge on the back deck and got up to Banbury for half past ten, just in time to grab the last space on the Castle Quay visitor moorings in the town centre. Perfect, however the viewing got cancelled, so Dave went straight over to the bus station where he caught the bus to Tackley and walked over to Kirtlington for the car.

Dave going into Sommerton Deep lock. At one time this was the deepest lock on the system.

It must have been quite daunting for 18th centuary boaters.

But it probably wasn't as leaky back then. This is why you keep your cratch cover done up. 

One of the many iconic lift bridges on the South Oxford. Much cheaper to build than proper brick bridges, they were a temporary measure to get the canal finished when the money ran out.

Going back onto the river section below Nell lock.

Coming out of Nell lock.

The Pig Place. Crazy and delicious.

The South Oxford has such contrasting scenery.

Under the M40.

Swallows getting ready to go home.

A very sad looking lock cottage.

Approaching Banbury Lock. The town centre has been symatheticaly developed around the canal.

Into Banbury lock.

Passing the famous Tooley's Boatyard in Banbury town centre.

Moored up on Banbury visitor moorings. We got the last available spot.

Our next stop was Cropredy, where we planned to leave Legend for ten days while we went over to Ireland. It was an easy enough trip up the beautiful south Oxford, apart from one pound at Slatt Mill which was quit low. Not a problem for us because we’ve moved most of our stuff out and Legend sits a lot higher in the water, but as we were waiting to go up, Nb Fenny - an old deep-draughted working boat - came down and grounded between the wing walls as it exited the lock. Flushing some more water through didn’t help, mainly because the top paddles were really stiff and it was impossible to open them quick enough to get a big  ‘lump’ of water through. As Fenny was clear of the bottom gates, Ann-Marie suggested to the skipper that they should fill the lock and then empty it to get a bigger push, but as she was just a mere woman who didn’t own a hundred-year-old boat, he didn’t even acknowledge her existence. In the end Dave steered Legend round him while he waved his arms about, and we were up and on our way. We heard through the grapevine that when the next boat came down and emptied the lock, he got flushed off and carried on.

We tied up at Cropredy Old Mill just after the end of the permanent moorings and walked back down to Banbury for the car. We picked up Dave’s prescription and supplies for the flight, had a coffee and a bun in Waitrose, and then went back to sort Legend out before we left for the airport and abandoned the poor old thing for a week and a half.

The last flight of the day from Birmingham to Belfast International was uneventful and only about forty minutes and we were tucked up in Chloe and Shandy’s spare room just before midnight. 

Over the following ten days we were really busy and the time flew by, but we achieved everything we went over there for and the end result was quite impressive. None of it was boat related, but here's a short photo diary of what went on.

Dave's 100th parkrun.

50mm Kingspan getting cut up...

...and installed under the static.

Hard work, but so worth it.

He got it all done in the end.

Fibre Broadband is being rolled out to rural areas in NI. Faster and so much cheaper than Starlink.

Stephen in the big digger making short work of the top- soil pile. This is where the static is going to go.

The side of the house facing the lane, before....

...also before...

...and after the top soil got moved.

The static in its final position.

The view of Lough Neagh and the Sperrins from the front window. Fabulous even on a dull day.