Date - 11 02 10 Day - Thursday Start - Pigeon Lock End - Thrupp Last night there was no 3 internet signal at all below Pigeon Lock so yesterdays report was sent this morning. It started to freeze early yesterday, well before dark as I nearly slipped over on the front deck. By 9 o'clock it was almost -3 but it warmed slightly as the night progressed. We left at 10 this morning making our way down to Dukes Lock, there were a few places where the canal was frozen over but it was only about 4 mm thick. We didn't meet any boats today but we were aware of at least one behind us. The river Cherwell was still in the yellow but didn't feel to be moving very fast at all. The first time I came up this river I remember thinking,its a good job those reeds are there or I wouldn't know were the banks are. It must have been in flood but there were no indicator boards then and I didn't think anything of it. I just got on with it and pushed up against the flow. I also remember the river and flooded fields were only separated from the canal by a very narrow pathway.Today, older and wiser, I would tie up and wait for the levels to fall. As we passed through Thrupp I noticed that their were several vacant moorings, a couple right out side The Jolly Boatman, about 4 by the cottages and even more at the north end of the moorings, so we shouldn't have a problem finding an overnight mooring, unlike last time when I had to borrow a club mooring for the night. We continued on to Dukes Lock where I winded in the entrance to Dukes Cut. Here BW were cleaning up around the lock which had got into a terribly overgrown state. I complained to BW about it last time we came this way, but they past me over to the EA, neither of them seamed to know which one of them owned the lock. It looks as if it has fallen to BW to sort it out. With no other boats on the move both the locks were as we left them ready for our return. The BW chaps who had been working at Dukes Cut even opened the lift bridge for us as their lorry was parked beside it. The two moorings outside the pub were gone, with a boat mooring right in the middle,had I have really wanted to moor there I would have asked him to move up a bit to one end, but we would prefer the quieter moorings by the cottages, these are 48 hr moorings, but we only want to stop over night. At 4 pm we tied the stern to a ring and put a stake in for the bows. It much quieter here well away from the main road, only the trains going by and there are not to many of them overnight.
You will find our latest position at http://tinyurl.com/Harnser-s-route -- Brian
