Why a 'Y-Front' Blog? Coz i'ts going to be brief!
OK now where were we.....We left Caxton in the capable hands of Bro Russell and his Missus, Tracy.
It was nice to drive a car again after a few months even though the drive to Macclesfield was in grotty weather! Had a great time in Macc, caught up with Elaine's relos, went out with her friends and got drunk!
The pic below was taken at the Cat and Fiddle pub on the Pennines, it was bloody freezing.
We left Macclesfield on Tuesday to drive back to the boat, we both wondered how we would feel leaving a house and heading back to the boat; we both agreed it was nice for a change plus it it always good to catch up with family and friends, but home was now the boat and we missed her!
On the way back we stopped to check out Aston Marina in Stone where we are wintering from October for a few... months. It was fantastic ... I think the restaurant/bar and farm shop will send us broke though !
Russ found a fantastic mooring for us to find the boat at Upper Heyford; it was so nice we stayed the next day as well - although the weather must have followed us down from Macclesfield as the weather on Wednesday day time was atrocious ! I did a bit of varnishing inside the boat on Wednesday while Elaine unpacked and sorted out some paperwork - then at the end of the day the sun made an appearance again so we walked up the hill to the Barley Mow pub for a swift pint!
Why is it this shape you ask, well....... don't know, but El looked good on the beam though!
We passed ' NB No Problem'; I waved at Sue but I think she thought I was my brother! We were soon in the very delightful village/hamlet of Thrupp, we passed the good ship 'Bones' - I thought of ramming the port side of it to even up the dent on the starboard side!
We tied up at the water point to fill with water and empty the nasties. Maffi's boat 'Milly M' was moored opposite, he stuck his head up and we had a quick exchange of pleasantries. We left the mooring under the watchful eye of the Maffster, so I was very careful on the tight turn not to destroy his bridge or ram anything !
We got a very nice spot on the 48 hour mooring, right next to the Boat Inn.
John and Ali came walking past (from NB Triskaideka) so we arranged to meet later at The Jolly Boatman pub, both pubs in Thrupp are dog friendly.
We had a really good night discussing all things boaty and bloggy, especially how important the blog ratings are.... OK, I lied about that bit! We both agreed it is not a competition, it's just a bit of fun to keep in touch with our thousands of world wide readers....... :-)
We were invited back to their lovely boat for coffee, it was the strangest coffee I have ever tasted, it was red and tasted like wine! After a couple of mugs it was 1.00am and time to stagger down the towpath, with the borrowed torch, back to our boat.
Elaine was up very early as we were expecting Mr Tesco to make a delivery. I stayed in bed a bit longer because last night's coffee gave me a bit of a headache! Mr Tesco arrived on time, once again great service - you really can't get much closer for a delivery!
After the food et al was stashed away we decided to catch the bus into Oxford and do some sightseeing. We were both feeling a bit lethargic, so for the very first time we caught the open top sightseeing bus.
The dogs enjoyed it for about 15 mins then fell asleep, I think they are getting a bit bored with this sightseeing lark ...
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| Alice in wonderland sweet shop |
So, in summing up, really enjoyed the trip back to Macc - really, really enjoyed getting back to the boat and cruising again - really, really, really enjoyed Thrupp and going out with the Triskaideka crew and drinking their red coffee! Really, really, really, really enjoyed our day trip to Oxford.
So now we are bang up to date, tomorrow we are going to reverse back through Maffi's bridge and head towards...............
The lock is that shape so that it lets plenty of water down, to match the next lock which is much deeper. If it was normal shape, the pound in between would eventually run dry, as each boat would take a little bit of water down into the pound, then take a lot out of it at the next lock.
ReplyDeleteThanks for a lovely evening & thanks so much for the soap its lovely and so kind of you. Hope to see you both soon. (John says and we can go out for coffee again!)
ReplyDeleteAli x