It was all happening at the winding hole.

 Tuesday 19th

It was inevitable, Toffee has to go home tomorrow. The family arrived back from Cape Verdi, landed late last night and the arrangement was to get to the Wharf Inn at Fenny Compton where the hand-over will happen. We tried to convince Colin and Iwona to leave her with us for another couple of weeks, but that went down like a sack of potatoes. Took her for a long walk this afternoon, watched her having what I call a 'spag attack', I can't believe how much we will miss her.

Latish start this morning, we only had about 5 miles to go until arriving at Fenny Compton. A mooring right by the Wharf Inn would be nice, get there too early and boaters may not have moved on, too late and the spot would be gone. And we timed it perfectly, arriving at 11 am. 

The Oxford canal is lovely but challenging. All those twists and turns, what was the great man James Brindley thinking of? This excerpt from Canal and River Trust site The Oxford Canal was originally built to the contour method favoured by Brindley, which not only meant that earthworks were minimised, but that the canal could call at many villages and wharves along the route. 

So many blind bridges to go through.

 For some reason, Ian failed to turn the tiller hard to the right as he approached bridge 131. Okay it was a very sharp turn but even so.... "Come round you cow" he shouted. Well she didn't, did she. Straight into the bank, FS went. "Good God, this canal needs dredging badly" he moaned "The bottom is too near to the top and that's the problem" he exclaimed. Yea, right, I thought. I daren't make a comment though, might have got told, "If you can do better......"

 

Ploughed straight into the bank!

Unsure whether any space would be available, I stopped FS well before the Inn. Ian walked to see if the pub mooring was free. It was. Only allowed to stay for 48-hours, but that will do nicely because we plan to leave on Thursday.

 Late afternoon and the peace was shattered by a Rothens CRT dredger coming past. Judging by the amount of mud that was being churned up by the prop, the dredger bucket was obsolete!

Their plan was to wind, but by the winding hole was also the water point and two boats were already there filling their tanks. So, the CRT crew drove the bow against the bank and waited. Eventually, one of the boats pulled forward, giving some space for the turn. But coming through the bridge, a bow appeared and that too now came into the equation. For the Rothen boat to get round it needed the width of the winding hole, and off course that second boat using the water point was in its way. So a message was relayed to the boat in the bridge ole to reverse, the second boat filling his tank had to remove the hose and pull their boat back through the bridge also. Finally, the Rothen boat managed the manoeuvre, but not before it too had to reverse through the bridge to give itself room for the bow to swing around. Can you imagine if any more boats had turned up? This was entertaining enough, but the chaos that would have ensued if that had been the case, well what a sight that would have been. As it was, it all helped to pass the time nicely.

The hose belonged to the second boat

And this made me laugh.

And wildlife today.

Red Kite