Hadar

Tuesday 13th January.

Banbury to Belchers Lift Bridge, near Aynho Wharf, 5.8 miles and 4 locks.

The temperature in our boat last night was red hot, despite the fact that I had dampened the fire down. Neither Keith nor I slept too well, due to the warmth, I put it down to being menopausal, but that could not be the same for Keith, so he was up early hours sitting playing on his computer, I also got up and made us both a cup of tea. I went back to bed with my cuppa and tried to get back to sleep. Eventually we both drifted back off to sleep, before having to get up all over again to go and do a food shop at Morrison’s.
With the food shop done and put away, we left our mooring in Banbury at 11.30am and no sooner had we done so, we saw NB Ten Bob Note on residential moorings, but Ernie did not seem to be around, so we will maybe see him when we come back to Banbury in a few weeks time. Just after passing NB Ten Bob Note, we then saw NB Epiphany moored up. Fiona was waving to us through one of their portholes. We will definitely see them again on this trip, which we look forward to. On leaving them the heavens opened and a rainbow appeared just behind NB Epiphany. That was the first of two rainbows during todays cruise.
We continued our journey through the fabulous Cherwell Valley, with its lift bridges, which these days many are left open. The locks along this stretch look over the valley with spectacular views. I always like it when we get to Kings Sutton lock (10’8”), it still has the old out buildings and its pretty lock cottage, on this occasion we met NB Bess, who was being single handed by her owner, so I did the lock for him so he did not have to worry about climbing up the lock ladder. We passed the time of day before both going on our way.The one lock on this stretch which I really dislike is Aynho Weir Lock (1’0”), it may only be a shallow lock, but oh boy it is so difficult to get the darn lock gate open. Eventually I did manage to open the gate, after having a good old moan to myself. Having exited the lock, we cruised on to find a place to moor just past the derelict Belchers lift bridge at 2.15pm.The weather today has been a little hit and miss, with sunshine and showers, but really quite pleasant, with our second rainbow finishing off our days cruising. What we found a little surprising was there was still some ice floating around on the canal in sheltered places. I heard yesterday that we have another cold spell coming soon and it will be just as cold as the one we have just had, bring it on and some snow please.