Somerton to Cropredy.

Wednesday 8th August 2007

We set off from Deep Cutting under a perfect blue sky. My favourite lock was approaching - Somerton Deep, or, as I lovingly call it, LOCK OF DEATH:

It is a bit deep, as the name suggests and feels a bit like entering a coffin in a claustrophobic kind of way.

From here after our trip to Banbury was peaceful and rather pleasant. We idly passed farmers busy with their harvests.

And reached Banbury by mid afternoon.

The cut was a lot busier today and Banbury was a traffic jam of narrow boats, mainly coming downstream.

By early evening we reached Cropredy and boats were moored as far back as Slat Mill Bridge. We took the opportunity to go to Cropredy Wharf Bridge where there is a winding point so we’d be facing the right way come departure time on Sunday. Unfortunately, there was a boat moored opposite the winding point (which they shouldn’t have been) and this made turning quite difficult. All the children out in their canoes, risking death by squashing between boats, didn’t help either. So, aside from breaking part of Cropredy Wharf, we turned and made our way back down to Slat Mill Bridge where we will be moored until Sunday.