A Cruise with Scott and Family.

Sunday 13th August 2017 at Claydon.
A beautiful sunrise at 5:50am.

Guy loves the rural countryside but he really is not much help with the locks!

The Napton Locks are renowned for their picturesque setting, although the convoluted Oxford canal means that you continually see the same pretty views - but from different directions. It can be very disconcerting!

Buffalo? In Warwickshire? What a surprise, for a moment we thought that we were back on Antelope Island on the Great Salt Lake in Utah (but with more trees and more green grass).

The wheat crop is ready for harvesting; in fact, in some places it has already been harvested; another sign of a good summer and a potentially bumper crop.

It was a real treat that Scott, Paula, Lachlan and Amelia were able to join us again today. They had driven to Fenny Compton and then walked back down the towpath towards us. Peanut had already been in the water.

It was a lovely cruise to Fenny Compton with Scott and family. Peanut stayed on the stern deck and was generally well behaved - except for the time that he stepped off the back! Luckily his lead was still attached and we managed to haul him back on board.
We moored up for lunch just past Fenny Compton with some difficulty. We couldn't get close to the bank, so we had to "walk the plank". Fenny Compton visitors' moorings were overflowing with boats returning from the Cropedy Music Festival.
A surprise meeting while we were moored up for lunch - Mike Kelly went past on his boat "Marionette" (named after his wife, who is also a Marion). As his boat is short, he was able to spin around and come back for a chat. They were also returning from the Festival.

We got to know them through the software they produce which documents the waterways - a copy of which was one of M's wedding presents to R. It was great to see Mike again and to catch up with his news.
Scott left shortly after, saying that they had all had a really super afternoon. It was certainly marvellous to see them all again so unexpectedly.

We were still on the summit of the South Oxford canal and as we were keen to get a few more locks under our belts before the end of the day, we continued on for a further three miles and then down the five Claydon locks before mooring up for the night south of Claydon.
As M was walking ahead to set the next lock in the Claydon flight, a powered paraglider briefly intruded on the calm of the evening, following the twisting line of the canal and waving to us as he went past.

We moored up at about 7:30 after another good day.
Today: 14 miles, 14 locks and 8.3 hours.
Trip: 211 miles, 224 locks and 152.1 hours.