Was it him...or me!

I have been very remiss! On our way to Pinkhill on the Thames and moored by Osney Lock was an Anglo Welsh hire boat Duloe. On board a hail from a lady to say she read my blog and also knew Sue (No Problem XL)and I meant to mention this and say thank you. It is only by reading Sue's blog today that I found out who the lady was. It's the mum of one of my blog readers Kevin TOO. So sorry for not thanking you properly and hope to meet you in person in the future. Sue, I hope you don't mind but I have pinched your picture.

Sheila (mum) with David, Kevin TOO's brother.

 So back to today,

And we thought we had got away early! A comment from Debbie (Lois Jane) yesterday said they were moored but a stones throw away at Chisnell lift bridge (about 1/4 mile) so we fully expected to pass them this morning, but no, not a sign!

Onwards then towards Banbury, dodging the showers along the way. Only 5 locks, including another of those diamond locks, and 11 lift bridges to do and thankgoodness every lift bridge was open except for two, Chisnell and Banbury. Ian struggled to open Chisnell lift bridge. Walking across the bridge and pulling on the chain didnt cause it to move. Back across the bridge and tried to pull it up by the handle. That was successful but would it stay up? Not a chance and no way was I going to attempt to dash through with FS in the hopes it wouldn't come crashing down! So back he went across the bridge to pull the chain down again. It did eventually open and to keep it from closing he had to sit on the beam. Hmmm, thought I, strange that it wasn't balanced correctly. Ian soon put me straight. It was the strength of the wind that kept it from staying open!

Chisnell lift bridge but where was Lois Jane?

What ever you do don't walk away!

Aynho Weir Lock

Crikey has FS decided to leave by herself?

We had a gongoozler!

Onto the river Cherwell

Bit of a hairy moment when a hire boat came through one of the narrows where a lift bridge used to be. We ended up on the mud, FS's bow swung out as the hire boat went past and we missed the narrows completely. Good job nothing else was coming through!

Lots of lift bridges.

We made it to Banbury and onto the facilities. A horrible crunching sound which I thought had come from the stern. But no....Ian reckons I caught the coping stones with the bow and ripped our cratch cover metal fixing clean off. I personally reckon it was Ian when he finally managed to get through that narrow section and hit the side wall. Hmmmm, I think we will have to agree to differ!

Good job we had a spare!

Banbury lock

And willing helpers.

Through the lift bridge and who should we find moored? Debbie and James.

Deciding to go to Wetherspoons for lunch, we were delighted when James and Debbie agreed to come with us. Two hours later, having had a whale of a time chatting away nineteen to the dozen, we left, us to head for the charity shops for more DVDs and James and Debbie to go back to LJ.

No doubt we will see you tomorrow guys!

And wildlife,

If you look really closely there is something brown hiding in the corn.