Dear Motley Crew,
In the words of The Grateful Dead –
On Tuesday 23rd May, word finally came through from the Canal and River Trust that continuous cruisers – people who lived aboard their boats full-time – could begin to move from their lockdown moorings, and so, on the 26th, we cast off from Banbury. What was to have been a three-day stay before moving on to Oxford, had morphed into 68 days and we realised that, since we’ve been here, we’d spent more time tied up alongside the canal than we have in cruising.
It felt a little odd to be casting off, particularly as it seems that many others are waiting until the 6th June, the last day of the order, before moving. The canals are strangely quiet and empty at a time of the year when madness and mayhem are apparently the order of the day. Leisure boaters – those who use their boats for holidays – are not yet able to make overnight trips, and the hire boat companies have not yet been permitted to re-open for business, and so we putter along at a respectable 4 mph unhindered by crowds.
The weather has been stunning with most days about 23 degrees and nights of around 8. With days such as these, our three solar panels have the batteries to full charge by mid-morning. In fact, for the majority of lockdown, we've only had to run the engine to charge batteries on about three occasions. So far, we’ve seen none of the infamous English summer weather, and, in fact, we understand that, ironically, some canals are closed to boats due to low water levels. What is needed, it seems, is rain. Those we spoke to whilst in lockdown, gloomily predicted that the glorious weather would only last until we were able to move, at which point it would begin to rain. So far, they've been proven wrong, but I notice that the weather that is being forecast for next week is not as pleasant as it has been.
Our journey from Banbury was a short one; just three hours up the canal to the village of Cropredy. When passing through here ten weeks ago we'd concluded - ignorantly as it happens - that the village had nothing to offer other than a few pleasing buildings and an interesting church clock. The return journey, however, has shown us a completely different landscape; the canals are now lined with fully-foliaged willows and poplars, and we can see why the Oxford canal attracts so many boating tourists. So we moored up for a few days and took advantage of the fine weather to do some rambling (not sure if that’s actually a verb), discovering fine houses, shady lanes and churches.
Edgecote House. Looks a little like Mr Darcy's "Pemberley"
Laneway leading into the village of Chipping Warden
Edgecote church. Sadly, all churches are currently closed, both to visitors and parishioners
We wandered along public footpaths that led through farmyards and diagonally across fields of wheat.
This is one aspect of England that I find to be perennially fascinating – that you can walk these ancient footpaths even if it means going through a crop or across someone’s farmyard.
This section of the footpath led right through a crop of wheat. We're headed for the house on the far right
We passed through kissing gates .....
These delightful little gates are called "kissing gates". They accommodate two which is rather handy
I know, pathetic really, but there you go!
.... and found traces of WW2 preparedness and tragedy.
I believe that these are called pillboxes. This one was outside Chipping Warden, the location of a WW2 RAF Bomber Command. Avro Anson's and Vickers Wellingtons operated from here
A plaque commemorating the crash-landing of a Wellington bomber in 1945
We happened upon a closed restaurant that was surviving by baking sourdough for the village and selling fruit and veg on the weekends, and an outlying cottage selling eggs from a roadside stall. Places like this are dotted about the countryside and we now know to carry cash in our packs in order to take advantage of these opportunities. To be able to take the time to visit these villages is pure pleasure. Hopefully, it won't be too long before we'll once again be able to slake our thirsts at local pubs and absorb the quiet dimness of small churches.
The Captain, The Commodore and The Cat
P.S. We would like to welcome aboard two new crew members;
Brian has taken on the role of Radio Officer (LROCP) although we're hoping that we will not need his experience in operating radios for Marine Rescue; and
Jeff, an original £10 Pom, now residing again in the Motherland, who has taken on the role of Historical Advisor. His role is to instruct the crew on where to find disintegrating castles and cathedrals, ancient battlefields and bell-ringing swans.
Consider yourselves piped aboard! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECX7AfTMv80
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