St Georges Day.

0 Locks 4 miles now moored at bridge 66 Oxford canal.
Total of 221 locks and 237¹/₂ miles and 8 Tunnels since 5th Nov 2006

Awoke to see some precipitation falling from the sky. It must be rain; we have not seen any for so long we forgot what it looked like. However it was time for another wee cruise down to Hillmorton locks for a change of scenery and to do some washing.

We were just about to cast off when the guy in the hire boat in front of us came out and spoke to Dot. After a couple of minutes I thought I had better go and see what was happening. Turns out that they left the UK 8 years ago for a 2 year overseas adventure before they settled down to a family.

They had finally come back to the UK to empty and sell the house. Where have they been in the last 8 years? Eastbourne, Lower Hutt,New Zealand of course (our hometown).
They like it so much that they bought a house there and now have 2 Kiwi sons. They are just having a last minute 3 week holiday on a narrowboat while they wait for all the legal stuff to be sorted out and for Gramps to see the grandchildren before returning to NZ.

While cruising we checked out the swan who was still sitting on her nest. Hopefully there might be some cygnets next time we pass.
Dot checked out the progress of the duck family of mum and 12 ducklings we had seen here previously and they are all present and accounted for and doing well. The duck family at bridge 58 are not fairing as well as they are down to 3.

The mural on the bridge wall is one of several in the area. The mural on the opposite wall was all about the game of rugby but the graffiti artists had defaced it.

We can also now confirm the presence of bluebells in this part of the country.