Wednesday 2nd June 2021 At Aynho.
An interesting cloud formation!
Banbury has a lift bridge right in the middle, behind the shopping centre that presents a blank brick wall to the canal. The architects would have done better to have embraced the waterway, rather than shut it out.
Tooley's Yard is known by boaters everywhere. It is the oldest boatyard on the canals that is still working on its original site. A young man called Matthew Armitage bought it and saved it from demolition and redevelopment. As it is, the Town Council showed how much they valued it by building a shopping centre almost over it that completely ignors its historical significance.
The shopping centre is now a food desert since they closed the M&S Food store two years ago, but walking through the town in search of a food shop gave us a chance to admire some of the fine buildings that the local council has so far not demolished. Just give them time ....
The famous tale of the Fine Lady on a White Horse was celebrated with this little floral tribute.
The notice tells the childrens' rhyme.
As we approached Banbury, passing boaters told tales of crammed moorings and nowhere to moor. When we arrived, there was not a single boat moored up anywhere on the visitors' moorings! Just ours!
A young lad named David was watching the action back at the wharf with his grandmother so M asked them if they would like to come down in the lock with MM. His granddad was on the quayside taking pictures. A memorable and unexpected treat for them.
There are many lift bridges on the Oxford canal. Luckily, most of them are left open. One always hopes they stay up while passing under!
We found a lovely spot to moor for lunch next to a bank of wild flowers including cow parsley, buttercups, birdseye, dandelions and plantains. A cloud of damselflies flitted between them. Magic.
Tarvers Lock is very deep.
A mandatory stop for us was at Aynho, to see Simon our engineer, who will give MM a partial repaint in October as the green colour has faded and lost its shine.
As it was late in the day and they were about to close, Matt, the owner, very kindly let us moor up on the service bay for the night.
Matt's young daughter proved very capable of driving the small tractor with the pump-out trailer (Her Dad was close but she did it entirely on her own).
We all went into the workshop to see Simon's latest handiwork, doing a complete repaint on one of the earlier Kingsground narrowboats. Simon really is a perfectionist - the paintwork shone.
It was so nice to see Simon again.
Today: 12 miles, 9 Locks and 5.7 hurs.
Trip: 106 miles, 50 locks and 47.3 hours.
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