Date - 24 7 09 Day - Friday Start - 0930 End - 1530 Last night we ate in The Maybush, both Diana and I had the pie from the specials and very good they were to. Each in an individual pie bowl and I would think home made with a dish of fresh vegetables which were also very nice. This morning we pushed off at 9 30 am back up stream, just as I got the bows out a narrow boat came through the bridge heading in our direction so I pulled over to allow him to pass, we then followed him to Shifford Lock which was "self service" as the now replaced yellow signs say. Her we locked through together and both stopped for water, while we were here we assisted a skiff going down through the lock as they had never been through a lock before and their first one had no keeper. We left the other boat to fill his tanks and headed off alone. The keeper at Rushey Lock asked where he had seen us before and we told him "here yesterday, when we came for a pumpout". Just as we left the lock the sky's opened for the next ten minutes or so, it was still raining lightly when we arrived at Radcot lock. We were still travelling alone when we entered Grafton Lock, here the keeper asked my to switch my engine off, the first one ever to do so when we have been the only boat in the lock. At Buscot lock there was a boat facing down stream moored right in the middle of the lock moorings having dinner. T he lady on board asked if we wanted to moor there, Diana told her it would help as we wanted to go through the lock. The reply was that there was another lock mooring near the lock, we pushed on and found a landing stage about 15 feet long by the lock entrance and two narrow boats waiting to exit the the lock so we just had to lay to and let them pass. The lock keeper had a good catch of Signal Cray Fish, I noticed that in his nets he had things like old dog bones and bottles three quarters full with water as well as whatever bate he was using, as we left the lock the keeper started to close the gates but I saw a cruiser approaching so tooted the horn, only for the cruiser to turn round and go back upstream where we shared St Johns lock with him. We are now moored about 200 yards down stream from the bridge in Lechlade close to the bank, we were moored further down with the bows about 3 foot out and the stern about 10 feet out, but we spotted a boat moving out from this decent mooring so we moved up and took his place, behind us is the boat we had seen on the Oxford Canal with the tortoise onboard. The owner has just had to hake up his temporary run and put him back on the boat as the young bullocks have just come into the field. Last time we were here mooring was free but it is now £4 a night.
You will find our latest position at http://tinyurl.com/Harnser-s-route -- Brian
