Thrupp.

Hi,

This weeks blog comes to you from the little Oxfordshire village of Thrupp.It’s a lovely little canalside village with a few houses and a couple of pubs,the Thrupp Canal Cruising Club is based here and most of the moorings come under their control.The only claim to fame that I can find about Thrupp is that there was an episode of Inspector Morse,called The Last Enemy,filmed by the canal and the Boat Inn back in 1989.We got here on Friday afternoon after quite a long days cruising and are staying till Tuesday when we hope to get to the outskirts of Oxford.

 

Swamp Frogs and ourselves moored in Banbury,we only stayed the night because we will have a day or two there on the way back from Oxford.

 

Approaching the lift bridge in Banbury with the Famous Tooleys Boatyard to the right,bit of a squeeze to get past.The lift bridge looking back,there are a lot of lift bridges like this on the South Oxford but most are left open.

 

The lock in Banbury with Lisa and Suzie gently pushing the top gate open and there’s Chyandour,opposite the Castle Quay shopping centre,waiting to go down the lock.

We left Banbury last Tuesday,in the company of Rob and Suzie off Swamp Frogs and stopped after a mile or so to do our shopping in the Morrison’s store beside the canal on the outskirts of the town.A couple of miles after leaving there we moored up in the middle of nowhere,which is our preference,and stopped for a couple of days just relaxing.I think we had earned it after last week.On Thursday we foolishly set off just before it began to rain rather heavily and,after stopping under a Lock Bridge to let it ease off a bit,we just did three miles and called it a day.

 

The approach to Aynho Weir Lock,the River Cherwell crosses the canal here at right angles and goes under the arches to the right.Chyandour in Aynho Weir Lock,a lozenge shaped lock which is bigger than a conventional lock and so allows more water down into the canal as it only has a fall of 12 inches.

We had what we thought would be a good mooring to head for on Friday but when we got there we weren’t all that impressed so we continued on our way till we found somewhere more suitable.That was when we discovered that pleasant moorings are few and far between on this end of the South Oxford and so we just kept going,a bit like the canal version of the Flying Dutchman.Well,that’s how it felt at the time.Finally,after 10 Locks and over fifteen Miles we found a couple of spaces here in Thrupp.With it being the Bank Holiday we decided to stay till Tuesday and just relax and make do with a couple of gentle walks around the village.There is also the delights of the two pubs to enjoy as well,so of course we sampled the fare in both of them.Both the Jolly Boatman and The Boat have food and Real Ales so all in all it was worth the long cruise to get here.

 

Somerton Deep Lock looking down from the bottom gates and looking back as we exited the lock.This lock has a drop of 12 feet.

 

An interesting sight as we left Lower Hayford on Friday afternoon.Is it aiming at speeding boaters perhaps? Another lozenge shaped lock,this one is Shipton Weir Lock which took us off another stretch of the River Cherwell.It was the last lock we did on Friday before getting to Thrupp,about a mile further on.

 

Part of Thrupp Canal Cruising Club and enjoying a glass or two of our homemade Cider on a lovely Saturday afternoon.

Well,that’s the lot again for this week folks,a day late I know,but I forgot to put the lappy on charge yesterday.Since our last blog we have done 13 Locks and 21 Miles,giving us a Grand Total of 705 Locks and 1248 Miles since we set off on our journey in October 2012.Take care everyone.