Date - 29 March 09 Day - Sunday Start - 11 am End - 4 pm Last night we ate in The Bell and I was surprised what good value it turned out to be, I was expecting much higher prices. The place was heaving and there was live music in the bar. When I took Magic out last thing, again there was a good layer of ice on the roof and looking out this morning it was still frosty. As most of you will realise by now the clocks went forward last which meant that we all got a hour less in bed last night. I thought I would change over gently, say 10 minutes a day for the rest of the week and I would be there. However the Collage Cruisers moored a short way down the cut had other ideas and came chugging by at 7 30 then the dog thought that maybe we should be up, so in the end I, like most people did the whole hour in one bash.
We decided that as the weather was so nice we would have a wonder round Lower Heyford before setting off, bad move. On Sunday all the Oxfordshire Narrowboats, day boats were out and 3 of them were going the same way as us, then a couple of private boats followed them so locking became slow going, even just travelling at tickover between locks I still caught up with the last boat, and at Somerton Deep Lock somehow the last private boat had got ahead of the last day boat and they were still waiting at the lock when we got there. About half a mile above the lock we pulled over for lunch. This is not a bad mooring, piled edge, deep and a hill between the cut and the railway. We were going to stop for the rest of the day but the batteries still needed another hour of charging so we continued on to Aynho Wharf where we filled with water and moored opposite the boat yard, again the buildings are between the cut and the railway so stop most of the noise. Once moored we did a few jobs around the boat in nice warm sunshine. You will find our latest position at http://tinyurl.com/Harnser-s-route -- Brian
