I blame our slow progress on this little cherub. Our weeks are interspersed by my weekly visits down to see her.
Sadly we are wending our way slow;y back to Petroc`s winter home at Clifton.
However the Oxford is one of our favourite canals and so far we have had some nice late summer/autumn days.
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| Lower Heyford was one of our very convenient station stops...the station couldn`t have been any closer! |
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| A bit nippy some mornings as the morning frost shows |
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| Lots of fields with grazing cows |
The old man of the sea has been shorn after this picture and looks vaguely respectable for a while!
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| A working barge towing another working barge |
This was an interesting meeting as we tried to be so obliging and give them room that we ended up stuck on the bank.......eventually wriggled free....
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| Through Banbury with its convenient moorings in the centre |
We actually moored just downstream on the 14 day moorings as I was away from Wednesday to Sunday. The rest of the moorings are 2 days only until the end of October.
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| Some sad sights along the way....a boarded up lock keepers cottage |
CRT are still coping with a water shortage on the Oxford and the locks are only open from about 10 until 4. I must confess I can`t work out how this saves water. If the same number of boats are travelling they will just do it in a concentrated space of time......must use the same water. Perhaps some wiser person can enlighten me.
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Total distance:6.03 miles Elapsed time:4h13m18s Locks:8 Bridges:23
Average speed:1.43 mph (3.32 lock/mph) |
We would normally have at least an overnight at Cropredy but decided to do the next 3 locks so we could have a lie in tomorrow and be ready to do the Claydon flight tomorrow. I did jump off briefly to nip into the shop to buy a loaf of bread but we had watered etc at Banbury ( with yet another slow tap!) so didn`t need to pause here.
2 comments:
The reasoning is, apparently, that the longer closed hours give the back pumps more time to move the water back up to the top — so the levels at the summit recover each night.
According to Richard Parry, when I asked him, one of the factors is the frequency with which boaters leave locks not properly closed. Locking up means that a real person (who hopefully is properly briefed) makes sure that the locks and paddles are left with the least possible leakage. Also, where there are back pumps it gives time for them to put the flight back into good order at least at the start of the day (except for those flights like Northampton, with notorious leaks part way down) Also, unlocking means that it is possible for someone to walk the flight and check that each pound starts off full. A widespread suspicion that it seems no-one in CaRT will comment on, is that the limitation will deter some people from cruising that way, thus making a saving. This was especially rumoured at Hilmorton where no-one has advanced a credible claim as to why only opening one of each pair, still closing both at night, saves water.
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