At Banbury I did the washing up.
This may sound dull as dishwater to you, but it is a timed event for us boaters. You see, as you travel along the engine heats the water resulting in steamy hot stuff when you moor up. Another boat crept by and a poor chap had one trouser leg up and one down. On closer inspection I could see he had sustained an injury to his shin. It looked like one of those stick on wounds the volunteers are plastered with when you do your First Aid training. I wanted to take a photo for you (your opinion always valuable) but resisted. I think that’s what’s termed ‘inappropriate behaviour’.
Banbury is the biggest place we’ve been to so far on our watery trip. We were relieved at its cosmo’ status as we had completely run out of all vegetation to eat (that I could safely identify).
Another rather smart thing about Banbury is the speed at which an itinerant can access a GP.
We were both able to see doctors the very next day for our respective ailments. Safe to say we are again as new, so don’t be worrying. (On health issues, did you know that you can now access a dental hygienist anywhere on your travels, not just the one attached to your dentist. Mark tried this one out in Rugby before we left the area, discovering this new service which is very liberating although not free like the GP of course).
We also benefitted from super-speedy service from Mat at Tooley’s Boatyard in Banbury who most kindly tended Silber with a big spanner and lent Mark his grease gun and didn’t want to charge us anything. A kinder spirit you’d be pressed to find.
After Banbury the canal’s water takes on a dark, thin, liquid chocolate look. At Grant’s Lock the water soared into the lock at being unleashed via the sluice and belched and fizzed in its confinement. As Silber descended in the lock a huge stream of water fell in a torrent through our engine room side door saturating the rug and spraying the engine itself. Really not at all useful.
Whilst making good our soggy situation we couldn’t help but notice a fallen tree across our path. Potentially a bit of a tricky one but there was space enough between the branches for us to pass through if we sucked our stomachs in. There is an emergency telephone number for fallen trees but we didn’t need to make the call as a burly CRT chap was fast approaching on the towpath, ready to rectify the situation.
W
e reached Nell Bridge Lock to meet a large board exclaiming a Navigation Warning System was in place. So far as we could work out you risked not being able to travel under bridge 187 if the water reached red alert. This made complete sense (as the photo shows) when the lock water descended and through the bridge we squeezed. Lucky for us we weren’t held hostage by excessive rain conditions and forced to wait for safe passage. That would have been quite another story, calling for sandwiches as well as tea no doubt.
Next stop, Somerton Deep Lock breakdown, party boat rescue and energy saving!
Thanks to Donna, Mark (and Inky) for writing, and permission to publish, this.
