Friday, 16th September
This was the coldest morning we've had this Autumn. There was condensation on the windows, we shall soon have to light the fire. We walked in to Banbury and shopped, and had a coffee at the cafe by the canal.Then, in the afternoon, we set off. First we pulled in at Sovereign Boats for fuel and paid the most we've ever paid, 48p per litre. I know that compares very favourably with the cost of road fuel, but we're used to having ours cheap! Then on to Hardwick Lock, where we had an interesting and new experience--we lost the boat!

Well, I had got off the boat to go and do the lock and was going to hand Trev his mobile 'phone. But he was convinced I would drop it in the canal, so got off the boat to take it from me and--yes-- the boat moved away from the side and he couldn't get back on, it went too far out. I sprinted (well may be that's a slight exaggeration....) up to the boat ahead and borrowed their boat hook, but our boat had gone too far. Liberty Belle sat there serenely in the middle of the cut and refused to come when called. It caused a degree of amusement amongst the other boaters, as we were in a queue waiting at the lock. Eventually another boat came along and Trev hitched a lift on it to retrieve ours! And I couldn't even take a 'photo, the camera was in the boat. What a good job it happened on the stagnant canal, not the Thames with a current running! It's funny isn't it, how one gets up in the morning having no idea what the day will bring!

Whilst we were in the queue for the lock, a man on a boat ahead commented on the rudeness of the steerers on a boat which had just gone through the lock, and how the people on board didn't seem to know what they were doing. I realised this was the boat of the man who had been talking to me yesterday in town, telling me that he had to leave the boat because his ex-partner's brothers were coming to take it away. So they really had come and taken it away. I wonder what happened to the man who was living on it. The dog was still on board.

We put our fleeces on today for the first time. It was really cold. We moored up by Bridge 156, just before Cropredy.

Saturday, 17th September
We called in at the village shop for the Saturday papers, and then set off again. Trev had a bad fall today. He was shutting the gate at Lock 18 when his feet slipped on the loose shale. He hit his elbow on the ground, but worse, he hit himself in the throat on the bar on the gate. It really shook him up and he took a while to get over it.

There was one more lock, and then a long distance without locks, and I steered all the way to Fenny Compton so that he could go and sit down and get over it. It's very tight at Fenny, there are so many moored boats, and if a boat comes the other way, it's difficult. We continued to Wormleighton through stunning Warwickshire countryside and eventually moored up by Bridge 130, dead opposite the huge mast. The views were fantastic.

I didn't feel too well myself this evening. I think I'd got frozen on the back of the boat. Trev lit the fire, the first one of the season. Fortunately he was feeling much better, and didn't seem to have suffered any long term damage. Whilst we were moored, a boat called Noonie came by. We'd last met it in Bristol Harbour. We waved in a cheerful fashion and they waved back, and continued on their way.

Sunday, 18th September
We moved on along the canal to the locks at Marston Doles, and then the Napton Flight. At the top of the Napton Flight, the Cutweb Internet Boating Club was having a meet. There were boats all over the place and I was really worried that I might hit one, as these were all treasured boats, and some were pretty smart ones! I negotiated them all without mishap, and we continued down the Napton Flight. At the bottom are two water points and there were two boats moored up, neither of which was taking on water. They'd just decided to stop there. It meant we couldn't reach the water point and had to carry on. Really, I suppose we should have stopped and asked one to move so we could have reached the tap, but we didn't come on to the canals to be confrontational.

Monday, 19th September
We left the Oxford Canal at Wigram's Turn, and turned left on to the Grand Union, in the direction of Warwick. We filled up with water at Calcutt Marina, and talked with Steve Furniss, owner of a wide beam canal holiday boat, Tranquil Rose. He and his wife, Steph, run holidays for guests, and they do all the work, steering, locking, cooking and general entertainment. They seemed a very friendly couple, and the guests gave unsolicited plaudits about the food.

Whilst we were filling up with water at Calcutt, a boat wanted to come up the lock, and it looked brand new. This supposition was reinforced by the antics of its crew! The woman opened the gate for her husband to drive the boat in to the lock, but before he got in, she opened the top paddles and the force of water was so great he couldn't get in to the lock! Whilst they were considering their next move, a friendly soul went over and explained to them what they should do. They really didn't seem to have a clue. Now, I know I have no room to talk, thinking of some of the drastic mistakes we made at the beginning, but I had at least read up on how to negotiate locks, and we'd watched other boats doing it.

Our friends, Claire & Peter, live on their boat a little way below Calcutt locks, so we called in for an hour and had a coffee with them. Then on through Bascote Locks, and one of our favourite moorings, Splash Bridge. We moored here on one of our very first trips and we love it, it's so peaceful and we're usually there on our own. Just after we moored, three women came by and said, "You can't moor there, we always moor there!" So it's obviously a favourite spot for others too. I told them that it was our mooring and we always moored there. Fortunately it was all in good humour and we didn't come to blows. They went on about a hundred yards and moored up.

Tuesday, 20th September
We continued on through Welsh Road Lock and the Fosse Locks. We stopped at Fosse Wharf and took on water, and had a pump out. There are few pump outs on the canal where we can use our own pump out kit, and this is one of them. It doesn't cost us anything, we like facilities like that! Then on again, to Radford Bottom Lock, and through "downtown" Leamington Spa, definitely not the town's best face.

Thursday, 22nd September
Today I went off for a rather interesting experience. My friend Catharine, with whom I was at school a few years ago(!) had asked me if I would go with her to the dedication of a bench in the Jephson Gardens, in Leamington Spa, which had been donated by the Old Girls' Association of our school. To be honest, I didn't want to go. I don't really like seeing people I haven't seen for years all looking so much older, as I have to then face up to the fact that may be I look a bit older too! But I couldn't invent an excuse, and she was very persuasive, so I duly reported at 10.00 a.m. for the performance. The real carrot which got me there was that a friend of ours whom we hadn't seen for forty-three years, would be there!

When we were in the sixth form and in the first year at Uni, five of us had holidayed together. One year, we had a fortnight hiking in the Lake District, another year we hiked around Luxembourg, and the final holiday together was a fortnight in a cottage in Cornwall. Oh, those balmy days of youth, before we all got sucked in to the "real world". The heady pleasures of escaping my mother for two weeks! The first lager, which nearly made me sick, cooking for ourselves, laughing till we cried, wonderful times, wonderful memories!

In about ten days, a fourth friend is coming over from Canada, and we're all going to meet up again. We're just missing our fifth friend. So, calling Alison Corney! Does anyone know where Alison is?

I shan't be writing a webpage next week. Come back in two weeks instead--please! Then you can hear about the next reunion of my old school friends, if you can bear it!