An early dart out of Banbury
We awoke at five for no reason particularly and then couldn’t get back to sleep. At half past six we gave up trying, got dressed and moved Phoenix III through the lift bridge and on to the water point. Having spent the whole of Monday moored at Castle Quay we were in need of all facilities so we did what was necessary and were on our way by ten to seven.We passed a hire boat from Braunston as we exited the lock so that made things easy for us. Needless to say there weren’t many boats on the move at that time of the morning but we made our way peacefully through the light drizzle of the grey June morning anyway. With two miles to the next lock Sue immediately got cracking in the galley and rustled up a couple of bacon sandwiches made with the cheese and onion artisan bread that we bought on Sunday at the Banbury show. Fuelled by our high octane breakfast we made easy work of the locks and miles heading south on the Oxford canal. We caught up with a couple of boats heading in the same direction as us but our waiting time was minimal and by the time we reached Aynho weir lock there were boats travelling in the opposite direction.
We reached Upper Heyford at one o’clock and decided to stop, finding a mooring just above Allens lock. We have travelled through here a few times before but never visited the village so we locked the boat and went to explore. Upper Heyford is one of those dormitory villages with nothing much to offer except a post box and a pub and even that was nothing special, we had a drink and then walked back down to the canal where we’ve settled for the day. There’s no internet at this spot but we can get television, tomorrow we will move on to Thrupp, we’re planning an early start but you can guarantee that we’ll sleep late instead!