Date - 26 2 07 Day - Monday Start - 9-30 above Dashwood Lock End - 1700 above Heyford Common Lock
During the night the atmospheric pressure rose steadily as did the level of the canal, the result of this was a sunny day with a steady flow of water topping the lock gates. We woke quite early to the sound of the trains running again and some early hour while it was still dark. We didn't see any trains at all yesterday, this may have been due to maintenance on the line or even the train derailing in Cumbria . Just before we were about to set off a boat came up the lock, as we were wandering around with the dog we lent him a hand and worked him up which he was very pleased with as he was single handed. We set off to wind at Enslow as that is the last winding hole before the Cherwell and we had no intention of heading down there with the amount of water in the river. We found some of the locks a bit heavy to open with amount of water coming over the top gates and in several places it was topping the towpath and spilling into the field. After winding we noticed a big difference in our progress, it was like going up the Llangollen. We had an uneventful run up the cut in some very pleasant sunshine with no real problems until we reached Lower Heyford lift bridge, here the single hander who we had seen first thing this morning had left his boat moored just below the lock, right where you want to get off to lift the bridge. Making our way through the bridge required a bit more power than normal with all the water coming down and as we came towards Heyford lock the reason became obvious with the Cherwell flowing over the banks and towpath into the canal.In fact the river looked to be higher today than it was yesterday. Once through Heyford lock the canal was again at its correct level with the bywashes handling the water better than yesterday. We carried on under the railway and up Heyford Common Lock, from here the canal winds round a small hill with the railway running on the other side of it an so shields it from the noise of the train. -- Brian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Visit this site and help save our waterways http://www.savethewaterways.org.uk/
