We said a sad, final farewell to June, Bob and Phoenix of nb Autumn Myst yesterday as we left the pound at the bottom of Napton Locks to work our way up the flight and southwards along the Oxford Canal. We’re travelling with Jayne and Stephen on nb ‘Dolce Far Niente’ (DFN) for a while and our little convoy started around 9:30 after DFN had watered up.
Big hugs! Doug with June(!) Bob and Phoenix.
Very kindly, Bob helped us up the 7 locks of the Napton Flight with Phoenix helping as well!
This is the view back towards Napton on the Hill as we reached the top of the flight. Sadly, the famous windmill is all but obscured by trees these days.
A quick chat as we waited for the second lock at Marston Doles to fill. Stephen, Doug and Jayne with DFN in the lock.
To quote our Canal Companion book: “For eleven dizzy, dreamy miles the Oxford Canal traverses its depopulated summit” We couldn’t agree more – it’s been four years since we were this way on our last boat. The views around each corner are wonderful and the canal winds its way all higgledy piggledy following the contours of the countryside.
DFN following us along this lovely stretch of water.
We found super moorings just short of bridge 130 where we soon made ourselves at home. The weather today has been great and has certainly made drying the washing easy!
Today we carried on our lovely journey along the top pound of the canal the weather, again, has been very kind to us, getting warmer as the day wore on.
The autumn colours starting to look good along the bankside.
DFN following us through the Fenny “Tunnel”. No longer a thousand yard tunnel, the rock it was bored through was brittle and the top was taken off long ago.
Emergency repairs are under way on one of today’s locks – just a rope was provided to open the gate.
As we entered Cropredy (our mooring for this evening) we noticed the work on the new marina was not going so well. Spring 2013 isn’t far away!
On our arrival in Cropredy we found good mooring above the lock, and we were so pleased that friends Del and Al on nb' ‘Derwent6’ were waiting for us. We introduced Jayne and Stephen to Del and Al and arranged a meal for all of us in the “Red Lion” this evening.
We popped into the village for a walk and paid a visit to the “Red Lion” where we booked a table for this evening and, on the spur of the moment, bought a beautiful wall clock made by the landlord’s father. It’s made from aircraft wood with a very unusual escapement at the top. We hope it will look good at home in Sussex.
Love Clock
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