Monday 22nd April
Here I am again! We have just spent 3 days in the ‘communication free zone’ that is Lower Heyford. There was no 3 internet signal, no Vodafone mobile signal and precious little EE, T Mobile or Orange signal either. So here are 4 days worth of blog for the price of 1!
Friday – We travelled 6 miles and 3 locks from Aynho to a nice mooring between Upper and Lower Heyford. It was a bright and breezy day and cruising was very pleasant. Lift bridge 193 did give me a problem though. It was supposed to be open but when we got to it it was shut. I unclipped it to release it and it shot in the air before I had a chance to get over to the other side. However, there is a chain on it which can be reached (just) from the towpath so I thought I would be able to pull it down after Ken passed through. I was sadly mistaken and nearly dislocated both my shoulders trying! Ken was unable to come to my assistance as the breeze (which had suddenly become quite strong) was making it difficult for him to get in to the side. In the end I had to leave the bridge open and leap on to the boat as Ken managed to get it within 2 ft of the bank! As we left a Viking Adrift, sorry Viking Afloat was coming the other way so I left it to them to try and shut the bridge.
No more disasters befell us on the rest of the trip and we found a very nice place to moor, without going right in to Lower Heyford, with a nice wide grassy tow path. There was one other boat there when we arrived and another joined us both later on.
We wandered up to Heyford Wharf for a paper and then went on to the station to look at the times of the trains to Oxford. A trip to Oxford was necessitated by the fact that when Ken tried on his best shoes (unworn for over 2 years) he decided they were too tight to wear all day at the wedding and he needed a new pair.
Then we went to The Bell for a (rather sub standard) pint. The pub was busy when we got there with a 16 strong Stag Party waiting to take 2 boats from Oxfordshire Narrowboats at Heyford. They were heading for Oxford for the weekend, look out Oxford!
Saturday – We went off to Oxford on the train, quite early (for us) at 9-17 am and paid, a very reasonable, £9 return for the two of us. It was only a 15 minute journey so we had lots of time to look round when we got there and the weather was a lot better than we had last year when we were there! We got the all important shoes at the nearest Clark’s and then wandered around for a bit. As it was such a lovely day we went to The Head Of The River (where Lewis and Hathaway have been spotted sometimes) and sat beside the river. We had an amusing time watching two parties of ‘punters’ trying to negotiate the flow, the cruisers and the rowers.
Sunday – After a fairly late start and a leisurely breakfast Ken decided to check the batteries and I cleaned the starboard side of the boat and the rest of the roof. We are now looking fairly respectable again, apart from all the touching up which needs doing!
As we were disappointed with the beer in The Bell the other day (too cold and flat) we decided to walk back to Upper Heyford and try The Barleymow. It is a Fuller’s pub but unfortunately they had sold out of London Pride. We had something called Chiswick which was ok but not brilliant. A conversation developed regarding some of the famous people who had frequented the pub, apparently Lawrence Fox used to go there for lunch when he was filming Lewis and Timothy West and Prunella Scales had been in this Saturday lunchtime.
When we got back to the boat we were sitting in the cratch having a cup of tea and who should go past in their boat? Timothy West and Prunella Scales! We had a brief chat as they passed.
Monday – And so we come to today, we have returned to signal civilisation, travelling 8 miles and 5 locks from Heyford to Thrupp. We had actually intended to stop at Enslow and come here tomorrow but there wasn’t a space to be had there so we had to carry on. When we got here the only space available was on the 48 hour moorings near The Boat. We need to be here until next Tuesday now so a 48 hour mooring is not much use.
We have got to turn round anyway so tomorrow we are going up to Duke’s Cut to wind then we are going to stop at Kidlington on the way back to go to the Coop. We will see what the situation is with 7 or 14 day moorings when we come back, either tomorrow afternoon or Wednesday. If the worst comes to the worst we can go back to Lower Heyford, which seemed less busy and go to Oxford from there on Friday as we would have done from here. As we have allowed ourselves plenty of time this is not a problem.
