We heard the first boat cast off at 6.45, I saw Toby look at the clock and knew there was no chance of Toby moving! It was a get up and go morning for us, with a cast off of 8.15, all done by Toby while I did breakfast and get the inside of Oliver sorted. There was morning dew and low sunshine, a wonderful September morning to be on the canals.

There is quite a lot of evidence of HS2 on the Oxford Canal, some boaters see it as much needed, although the majority seem to hate it.

Toby’s back is still sore, so I locked and Toby helmed. I did some helming on the non lock bits, it lovely this time of year to see the hawthorn berries, rosehips, sloes, blackberries and crab apples.

We reached the top of the flight at 10am which is when we thought the lock keepers opened the top lock, it was in fact 9am so there was only a queue of three boats in front of us – one was a hireboat called American Thrush, what a name, we did chuckle to ourselves.

Enjoying the sunshine in the queue. We were glad of our hats.

It was one up and one done at all but the very last lock. There was some interesting steering by some boaters, including a couple who were new, they were even wearing life jackets which seemed a bit over the top when the pounds were low and boats were running aground, you’d be able to stand up no problem.

We went past the field with the water buffalo, it looks like this fella cooled off with a nice mud bath.

I was fast turning in to an oompa lumpa and getting hotter and redder after each lock. We decided to moor up not long after the bottom lock at about 1.30.

Cake supplies were running low so I made a batch of brownies, I’m afraid it is a packet mix, but sometimes needs must, we’ll let you know if they’re any good tomorrow.

An evening planned watching the last two episodes of Cobra Kai……with a piece of cake, yum!