Apart from getting to Oxford for the Folk Weekend, at which the chief cook was supposed to be dancing, the rest of the summer’s activities were becoming as clear as the muddy canal water.

Plan A (back in the mists of time) was to head North and do some of the Pennine Canals: rumoured to be scenically splendid, and none of the crew had been waterborne up there before. However, the storms over the winter had left rather a legacy of problems, so this probably isn’t too good an idea at the moment, at least until things become clearer.

Plan B was to come down the Thames again from Oxford (for the third year running) –perhaps with a side trip up to Lechlade and back – then out on the Kennet & Avon Canal, with the intention of making it all the way to Bristol. Then a return to Reading and Oxford or – a very big maybe – prep the boat and hire a pilot for the tidal Severn transit to re-enter the canal system at Gloucester. Given the wet winter the Thames has been pretty flighty, and the Kennet can be a handful too, so this was looking a bit problematical.

Coming into Thrupp, we’d had some difficulty finding a suitable mooring: there were decidedly more boats than usual at this time of year. The Thames around Oxford had been on “red boards” (un-navigable) for several days, and clearly people were hanging around somewhere congenial until things improved.

Heading down to Oxford was by now familiar territory, and the mild but wet winter had not only helped the bird life, but for the first time for us, the towpaths were seriously muddy in places, the Cherwell was running high, and many of the low-lying fields were still awash with patches of standing water. So it was clear that even if the Thames came off red boards shortly, it was likely to stay volatile and run pretty fiercely. There was no slack in the land, and any more heavy rain would just sluice straight off the fields and into the river. So Plan B was looking a bit iffy too… We’ll clearly have to have some serious discussions with the Captain over the weekend.

But first, Oxford. There’s a 2 night limit on mooring in Jericho (convenient for the town centre and festival) after which they charge you £25 a night, and going down onto the other moorings on the Thames for the rest of the weekend wasn’t an option. So Thursday night was to be spent as close to Oxford as possible, to give us a quick run into Jericho on the Friday morning for the pick of the moorings. We’d have to take a chance on staying another night…

Unfortunately, beyond Kidlington, options are limited, as most of the towpaths on the outskirts of Oxford are either “conservation areas” or given over to the mysterious Oxford Agenda 21 Moorings.

So we ended up bailing out at Wolvercote Junction, where The Dukes Cut branches off to the Thames. Looking unpromising on paper, the junction lies in the armpit of the major flyover joining the A34 and the A40 Oxford Ring Road, with a busy railway junction a mere 50 yards away. However, it proved surprisingly amenable if you looked in the other direction, and not nearly as noisy as we’d feared. You can see why the lock cottage has remained unoccupied for several years, though!

Very much on familiar territory now, leaving the environs of Kings Sutton we were soon in the middle of Banbury for lunch and a whizz round the shops. The Captain had decided it was time to call it a day (for this year), so we aimed to moor just short of Cropredy on the Wednesday night, and make it into the marina pretty promptly on Thursday.

On the way out of Banbury, there’s an odd place which has cornered the market in old tyres. Never seen anyone mooring there, though.

Even odder, it also has a large picture of the residents Dink and Malc on the outside wall: click on the picture if you don’t believe us. They’re always in their conservatory and they always wave at passing boats.

The plan worked and we moored up by Peewit farm. We remember mooring here on the way down the Oxford Canal last summer, when the only bird we heard was a curlew. Perhaps they should rename the place.

And so to Cropedy, and Song & Dance’s home for the winter. Lots of packing up and sorting out, and in the end Biggles was ferried to his winter holiday home. The staff will doubtless be back in due course to finish readying Song & Dance for the big freeze, but for the moment, it’s back on dry land for a few months. That’ll be different!

Monday morning dawned grey damp and miserable: a short cruise brought us to the familiar environs of (Lower) Heyford, where provisions and newspapers were obtained, followed by lunch at The Bell. The church apparently has some fine stained glass. It was shut and locked.

Mooring up near Deep Cutting Bridge (where a deep cutting is noticeably absent), things looked rather better the next morning.

Unusually, the towpath just goes along the edge of an open field, with no hedge or fence – all very pleasant with the sun shining, and some fine blackberries to pick.

It’s just down the water from Somerton Deep Lock, which is deep. More worrying is the sign, visible from the railway, which suggests that the weather on this stretch can get very un-canal-like.

Suffering from a minor blackberry-picking delay, we arrived at Somerton Deep Lock to find rather a queue, and a helpful boat full of holiday trippers on their first day who – claiming to be in no hurry – moored at the front of the lock landing while they watched and “helped some other boats through”.

The best help they could have offered was to move their boat off the lock landing.

We stopped at Aynho Wharf just long enough to pick up some very cheap diesel and a newspaper. Sir jumped off, disappeared for a while, then returned just as the fuel tank was full, jumping on board with a smile. He’s beginning to make a habit of this…

With the Adderbury pig place still closed, we moored up just above Kings Sutton lock. Kings Sutton looks interesting on paper, and the moorings are very close to the village, but the River Cherwell and the railway are between the two, and the only feasible access is via bridge further up, about two miles out of the village, so it will have to wait for another time.