Thrupp to Somewhere in the wilds. 7 Locks.

Oooo it was chilly this morning, I even had to break out the fleece as we set off.

Nice scenery through here though and lots of trees to shelter us from the wind.

This lock has a very small rise and fall of only a foot or so but makes up for it by being three times as wide as a normal narrow lock.

This is where the canal meets the river Cherwell for the second time giving you twenty minutes of wide banks enabling you to clear the soot from the engine before rejoining the canal again.

Ubique trying to get out of the lock on her own and be let loose on the river.




Some locks just have the best locations, what a pleasure this is after our run to the city



Some of the entrances can be a bit of a challenge though, this extremely narrow one had a fierce weir flow right across the front of the bridge. You can't help a quick knock on the side in one of these.





Safely in and you can see just how tight that was.

We had to keep going longer than planned today as we noticed the water level was dropping quite severely in the pound (stretch of water between locks) we were in. This could mean that something had gone wrong down stream and we did not want to get caught out by running aground. Two locks up and everything was back to normal (Fingers crossed).



A good example here of why you should make sure that the front doors are kept shut whilst working through locks. That lot on the front carpet equals an unhappy wife.



Can you make out the rope holding the verandah on this tree house up?
This is perched right over the canal and is held up by nothing more than sky hooks.


Should be back at Banbury tomorrow,



until then....................................