Deer, Deer and more Deer!!

 

 

 

We woke up to a really bleak morning...The rain was just waiting over the hills.

Just past Fenny Compton we went through a cutting which used to be a tunnel. It's very  narrow and goes on for a good couple of miles. I've never seen water coming down at such speed.

 

 

Along the way there were lots of mushrooms...Greg looked them up and found them to be called Yellow Stainers. He got talking to a volunteer lock keeper who works with the English Rugby Team who also picked some...hopefully he looked them up before cooking them!!

                     The cottage at Great Bourton still looks the same- no more work
                                                  has been done on it.

 Just outside Banbury an enormous new housing estate has taken over the fields- there must be at least 300 new houses being built.

As we got further down the canal all the fields were flooded . We got to Kings Sutton and were told by a couple that they were the last boat to get under Molls bridge...and that the people they were travelling with were stuck the other side of Aynho Lock.

We were lucky enough to see a starlings murmuration whilst moored up near Kings Sutton.

Sorry Maria I couldn't resist taking pictures of the craters on the moon again...

The only place to turn around was at Aynho so we carried on and I'm so glad we did..

After we had turned round and were starting to head back we spotted 3 deer in the field ...they were trying to cross the canal but when they saw the boat they started running back up the field.

I abandoned the boat and went back along the towpath just in time to see the smallest one climbing out of the water.

I took a couple of pictures but could see he was getting worried and starting to panic so I returned back to the boat.

We carried on back through Banbury and Great Bourton again after deciding to head back up the Oxford and then do the Warwickshire Ring as Aynho lock looks like it will be closed for about 3 weeks. After getting soaked we moored up late afternoon.

Somebody-mentioning no names dropped her ball between the boat and the bank....I wondered why she was so quiet....She dug up half the bank trying to get it back. There was mud everywhere all over the boat and all over Molly!!

Today has been a day of sunshine and really heavy showers and tonight we've got hail stones and thunder..It might be a long night.

Happy Days