Friday

In Lower Heyford this evening, a slow day from Kidlington mooring last night; back to canal pace, strange lift bridges and some stiff locks. The lift bridges are operated with a BW key, but the instructions to turn the key clockwise and release the bridge which should then gently float up are a little optimistic! More like half a turn anti clockwise and full weight on the mechanism to release the thing then you still need to push it up, the counterweight system not being too clever. On one, someone had graffitied "another great piece of engineering; 0/10" !! Possibly the same person who had left a hand written sign on cardboard taped to the nearby narrowboat moored right by and too close to the lift bridge saying: ' what a stupid place to moor, thanks a lot, you d....head!'
Pretty part of the Oxford canal this which joins the River Cherwell for a stretch and then meanders through forest alongside the river. Cloudy today but not too cold, so a pleasant trip. Met a boatload of Aussies from Melbourne who were very cheery and friendly as we know Aussies are. They said they hadn't had enough time to look at places on their week long trip and found Oxford very busy. Also they thought they'd find more pubs along the way - so many are closed now or just run down. We wonder what they make of this strange English past time in a chilly Autumn climate, when it's 29 degrees in their home town! They seemed to be embracing it!

Tomorrow we will move on again and 'shuffle' cars and I will go back to my parents and sister on Sunday leaving Pete to take the boat back to its mooring at his own pace and on his own. It's a strange, surreal time for me.