Off to Lechlade

 

Another wet day....we set off at 9 and made our way to Pigeon lock where I found out that dinosaur and crocodile bones  had been found near Kirtlington Quarry when it was excavated many years ago.

 

 

 While I was busy doing the lock...Greg was taking photos. 

 

 

 
 

Bakers Lock-we were able to check the water level.. the lights flash to tell you if its safe to proceed.

 

 

What's this ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This little fella nearly got lost.

 

 There's a story that goes with this pontoon.....apparently someone was attacked by a deck chair and nearly ended up head first in the Thames....

 

 

26 miles to Lechlade...

 

 

 

 

We found a lovely spot to moor- Scully was more than happy to have a meadow to herself.

 

Time to get some sleep.

 

Until the noisy planes are overhead....

 

 

 

 

Happy days.

 

Claydon Locks

We finally got started at lunchtime on Tuesday as we waited for the rain to ease off although no sooner did we set off, then the heavens opened again. We carried on to the Claydon flight of locks. The cottage at the top lock has no road access and was up for sale last year- apparently a man who owns luxury hotels in Mumbai and various other places has bought it as a 'escape' cottage.

 

Someone was waiting for his dinner...

 

Broadmoor Lock.

 

 

One for you mum....

 

The skies were getting darker behind us.

 

 

Wednesday morning was warm and sunny so we decided to head of early. Standing at the bridge were some cows and calves..

 

We were just hoping these 2 didn't walk over the lift bridge as we were going under it !

The red kites were hovering above the tractor

 
 

 

 

 

 

Tucked away in the meadow was a helicopter, which had CCFC on the side....I did say to Greg that maybe it belonged to someone from Coventry City  Football Club which he thought was hilarious!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 
 

We moored up just before Pigeon Lock near Tackley Park for a bbq and would you believe it?  It started raining again!

Happy days.

 

 

Rain, Rain, Rain

We finally set off at about 6pm on Saturday evening and reached Brinklow where we decided to moor up so we could have  an early start on Sunday morning. Scully was more than happy to be back on the boat again.

 

 

We started at 8 o clock on a gorgeous Sunday morning...The terrapins were basking in the sunshine, the kingfisher was  sitting on a branch and even the fluffy moorhen chicks were out and about. We managed to get through Hillmorton locks fairly quickly although when we got to the top there were about 20 boats waiting to go down-apparently there had been 5 hire boats with Dutch people on board that were going at 2 miles an hour followed by a gentleman towing a boat which had broken down...needless to say there were a lot of unhappy people at the top. We carried on towards Braunston (where a pair of ducks decided to fly up and land on the boat!) We decided to moor up at the bottom of Napton locks just as it started to rain.

 

Monday morning and it was throwing down....we had a lazy morning and waited for the rain to blow over a little as we had 9 locks to get through. About 11 it dried up a bit so we decided to make our move...while Greg was battling with the locks I was trying to take a picture of a very wobbly legged  Buffalo calf !

 

 

 

I had to get a picture of these 2 swans- they each had 2 cygnets tucked away under their wings keeping warm.

 

 

 

We carried on until about 5 o clock when the heavens opened and the wind got up- luckily we moored up before getting to wet .

Happy days