Thursday 10 November 2011

Cropredy to Banbury

Disaster at Cropredy !!!  The Red Lion has closed.  What a great shame, this was a lovely pub which closed down without warning last week.  This resulted in us going to the Brasenose pub instead.  Dave bought our beers - fine - Hooky at £3.20 a pint.  Pricey but ok.  Graham & Gill arrived & bought a pint of brakespear - at £3.70 a pint. G choked & spluttered & complained.  "Not our fault - blame the brewery" was the reply!    I suppose we'll have to get used to southern prices the further down we go.  We've also lost Nick & Suzanne on Midlands Today, it's now BBC Oxford.  Without Shifali in charge of the weather, who knows what's going to happen now.
This is the first time Dave and I have come down this canal on one boat, the previous times we've been single handed on two boats.  Bit of a novelty being chauffeur driven.  Major flood alleviation works going on around the M40 here, which has encroached on the lovely isoloated lock cottage at  Bourton, leaving them with a few feet of garden at the back before a whopping great 20 foot bank of earth, obscuring any views they may have had.  The cottage itself remains unoccupied, unsurprisingly.




Matilda Rose entering the lock just before Banbury.

Our mooring, right in the town centre.  Nemo had a bit of a shock last night - he was chased back into the boat at 11pm, by what I assumed was a dog, I stuck my head out of the side hatch, to find a fox standing by the back of the boat.  I don't know who's tail was fluffier - the fox's or Nemo's.  He didn't venture very far after that!

Thankfully, Ye Olde Raindeer pub was alive and kicking! Beautiful 15th century pub serving a variety of local Hook Norton ales, at £3.30 / pint. 

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