Bidding farewell to our chums at Cropredy, we headed off up the Claydon Locks aiming to reach the summit pound of the Oxford Canal. The Claydon Locks had been closed or heavily restricted recently, but we found no evidence of problems on the way up.

However… the outlook was grim, with sunny spells and wintry showers forecast,. and it was <expletive deleted> cold. We thought we were going to bimble up to the summit pound, not mount an assault on Everest.

Even the buzzard  was keeping his head down.

With lowering skies and proper snow starting up, it seemed a good time to just pack it in, singing

Boating in the snow
Just boating in the Snow
What a glorious feeling
You should give it a go

… and watch Gene Kelly tap dance down the towpath.

Saturday morning, big town centre nearby… must be shopping!

When we were heading down the canal to Oxford, there was large, comfortable looking and seemingly quite new armchair floating in the basin by the lock, rather in the way of boaters. With no habitation or even parking conveniently close by someone must have gone to some considerable effort to donate it: we were looking for the matching sofa, to no avail. They’re a bit odd that way in Banbury – Oxfordshire’s take on NfN?. We were quite pleased on returning that there was no sign of The Spanish Inquisition at all let alone the comfy chair.

Moored up in Castle Quay shopping parade, the chief cook was only yards from Marks & Spencer, Holland & Barrett, all your favourite mobile phone shops, and the Saturday market where a young, handsome (apparently) and smooth-talking Frenchman sold the chief cook some astonishingly expensive and smelly cheese. Not wishing to stay in town on the Saturday night, we headed a bit further uphill near to Great Bourton lock. We felt marginally sorry for Dink & Malc, who – seemingly as always – were sitting in their conservatory, waving to all and sundry passing down the canal. In the last few months, next to their abode has grown a positively enormous rectangular warehouse/box/monstrosity which goes on for hundreds of yards overlooking and dwarfing everything. Progress!?

As our “planning” in Oxford had got as far as heading North a bit, we’d decided to stop over in Cropredy on Sunday night while one of us repatriated the car on Monday, and the other caught up on a fortnight’s washing and drying. Oh the glamour.

So a quick cruise into the Marina (who were pleased to see us) – felt almost like home. And once again, the only bird we noted as we passed Peewit Farm was a Curlew who put on a lovely loud low pass over the boat for us. We had seen a lone high-flying Lapwing the other side of Banbury, but none near their namesake farm.

By the time the washing and driving chores were sorted, it was a bit late in the day to head off cruising, so we stopped another night, and got our exercise for the day walking to the comfortable Brasenose Arms for dinner – it’s rapidly becoming a favourite feeding station. They’ve got a very comfy sofa…

Leaving Dashwood’s lock on a much gloomier and colder but dry Thursday morning, we ambled along back through Heyford, then up through Somerton Deep Lock for an overnight stay. Stopping at Heyford for provisions we had coffee in the Oxford Narrowboats cafe, where David Dares (a significant player in the hire boat world hereabouts and on the K&A) was in serious discussions with two chaps from the Canal & River Trust. Wonder what was being discussed…

Friday, fairly miserable weather again, and the by-now familiar run through Aynho and its lozenge shaped weir lock onto the Cherwell again, then back up past the Pig Place (nowhere to moor). We had vaguely thought we might make Banbury for a Friday night on the tiles, but the weather was closing in, and misjudging it slightly, packed it in for the day by Biggles’ swimming pool just outside town, when it was already starting to rain significantly.

During these two days, we’d come to realise that it was not only the bird life that seemed to be much more prevalent this year, but also the bees. We were frequently buzzed by large bumble bees, and can’t recall really noticing any in previous trips.

And although the weather was a bit dour and cold, we had a splendid flypast by a low-level Curlew (now worryingly on the red list), and a ten minute period when a Kingfisher kept sitting on its perch until we got very close, then zoomed down the canal for just a short way before posing again. They really are beautiful birds.

Another first for us on the canal system was a lone Common Sandpiper, as well as a heron dive-bombing the water from the air like a tern or a gannet. We also saw one landing on the water and paddling around like a duck. Odd herons they have around here!