A Socially Distanced Meeting with Jenni, Will and Ed.

 Friday 25th September 2020 near Napton Junction

We treated ourselves to breakfast from the Gongoozler's Rest narrowboat café. As ever, in these socially distant times, it was a take-away but just as delicious as ever.

They have set up a gazebo in the garden opposite, so we were able to shelter there from the wind, which was quickly becoming quite strong.

After breakfast, we set off south down the length of the canal shared by the Oxford and Grand Union Canals towards Napton. Our friend Jenni from Huddersfield has a share in a narrowboat based at Wigrams Turn Marina opposite Napton Junction; she and her two lads were picking up the boat this afternoon, so we decided to cruise down to see them. We had a good view of Braunston's unusually knobbly church spire as we left.

The junction of the Oxford and the Grand Union Canals is unusual in that it is in the form of a "Y" with two of the lovely Horseley Iron Works bridges spanning the two arms.

Just south of the junction is a very attractive "turnaround" bridge connecting the towpath on either side.

Bridge 100 has lost its parapets so looks a bit precarious!

By this time, the wind was working its way up to gale force, blowing MM all over the place - so we were rather amused to see this lady playing the guitar with her hair "blowing in the wind".

When we arrived at Napton Junction, we turned into Wigram's Turn Marina in order to get some diesel fuel. The service mooring was broadside across the wind, so as we arrived it blew us up against the mooring. That made life easy when arriving but not so easy when you wanted to leave, trying to cruise into the teeth of the gale. Twice the wind whipped our stern ropes off the taff rail into the water behind us - not good news when the prop is turning.

We moored up outside the marina to await the arrival of Jenni, Will and Ed who duly parked their car and made their way on foot to find us at the entrance. We cruised across to talk to them and to deliver some of Braunston's locally made signature "Badger" sausages, bought this morning from the butcher. It was so nice to see them and have a brief catch up - although some of our words were carried off by the wind!

Ed sent us this picture that he took of M photographing them!

This area is very agricultural with some really massive arable fields. Many tractors were hard at work harrowing, rolling and seeding.  Thanks to the recent excellent weather, almost all the ploughing seems already to have been finished.

M would have loved to climb this hill, surrounded by fields on every side. A great place for a house or just to walk around, she declared.

We got just over half way back towards Braunston before we moored up, in almost the same place as we moored in 2013, surrounded by quiet countryside. We were rewarded by another lovely sunset, even if M did have to fight her way through the hawthorn hedge to photograph it!

Today: 8 miles, 0 lockd and 3.9 hours.

Trip: 129 miles, 33 locks and 66.4 hours.