31st October
On 27th I left Pete at Heyford to travel back to our mooring on his own. This being half term there were plenty of other boaters around to help, so he had a reasonable trip back through Banbury and Cropredy. Meanwhile I went home to get the car and returned on 30th.
Good friends, Jenny and Sid came to stay on their boat in the marina and they joined us for an evening (one of many we have shared with them in the past) in our local The Wharf, Sid having helped Pete on the last leg up to Fenny Compton through Claydon locks. As is usual with the four of us a large quantity of ale was consumed as we swopped tales of boating experiences and family news. All good fun. We staggered back down the towpath by torchlight, had coffee on our boat and said goodnight.
The next morning was spent emptying our boat of nearly 3 months of living aboard paraphernalia which always takes twice as long as we'd been reckoning on. Clothes, sheets, towels, food, shoes and a canoe all have to come off and fridge has to be defrosted, fuel topped up and loo tank pumped out!
Then coffee on board J and S's cosy, homely boat to say goodbye and we were on our way home by 2pm.
This trip has been exceptionally successful helped by the fantastic weather we have had, it's a terrific past time in a different, partly forgotten world and it's always a bit sad when our travelling is over. We are so lucky to own such a lovely cottage on water.
Words that Pete found from a book by Robert Louis Stevenson sum up this way of life perfectly:
"The chimney smokes for dinner as you go along; the banks of the canal slowly unroll their scenery to contemplative eyes; the barge floats by great forests and through great cities with their public buildings and their lamps at night; and for the bargee, in his floating home, "travelling abed," it is merely as if he were listening to another man's story or turning the leaves of a picture book in which he had no concern. He may take his afternoon walk in some foreign country on the banks of the canal, and then come home to dinner at his own fireside."
From An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson (1878)
On 27th I left Pete at Heyford to travel back to our mooring on his own. This being half term there were plenty of other boaters around to help, so he had a reasonable trip back through Banbury and Cropredy. Meanwhile I went home to get the car and returned on 30th.
Good friends, Jenny and Sid came to stay on their boat in the marina and they joined us for an evening (one of many we have shared with them in the past) in our local The Wharf, Sid having helped Pete on the last leg up to Fenny Compton through Claydon locks. As is usual with the four of us a large quantity of ale was consumed as we swopped tales of boating experiences and family news. All good fun. We staggered back down the towpath by torchlight, had coffee on our boat and said goodnight.
The next morning was spent emptying our boat of nearly 3 months of living aboard paraphernalia which always takes twice as long as we'd been reckoning on. Clothes, sheets, towels, food, shoes and a canoe all have to come off and fridge has to be defrosted, fuel topped up and loo tank pumped out!
Then coffee on board J and S's cosy, homely boat to say goodbye and we were on our way home by 2pm.
This trip has been exceptionally successful helped by the fantastic weather we have had, it's a terrific past time in a different, partly forgotten world and it's always a bit sad when our travelling is over. We are so lucky to own such a lovely cottage on water.
Words that Pete found from a book by Robert Louis Stevenson sum up this way of life perfectly:
"The chimney smokes for dinner as you go along; the banks of the canal slowly unroll their scenery to contemplative eyes; the barge floats by great forests and through great cities with their public buildings and their lamps at night; and for the bargee, in his floating home, "travelling abed," it is merely as if he were listening to another man's story or turning the leaves of a picture book in which he had no concern. He may take his afternoon walk in some foreign country on the banks of the canal, and then come home to dinner at his own fireside."
From An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson (1878)
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