Back on the Oxford.

1 Lock, 8 Miles. Now moored All Oaks Wood, North Oxford Canal.

Once again the sky was overcast and misty as we set off this morning. First job was the water tank which we filled before turning onto the Oxford and locking through the 6 inch rise of the Hawkesbury stop lock. There are still plenty of boats moored along the towpath around here making it slow going for a while. Once clear of bridge 4 it was plain sailing shall we say.

Reaching Stretton Stop we were confronted with all of the Rose Narrowboat hire fleet breasted up along side the diesel and pump out point so we had to breast up 3 deep. The diesel hose only just reached the boat which was fortunate as we took on another 85 litre's. Due to the cold snap we have been experiencing lately the Mikuni central heating unit has been working its little butt off chewing through a fair amount of fuel. The staff member who served us told us that they hadn't sold much diesel yet under the new pricing regime so were still on a learning curve. Majority of the local boats have been buying diesel at the service station which works out about the same price but being white diesel their engines run better. I don't know if the white fuel would improve the consumption though. As for a pump out, no show, the pump was out of action but they did tell us where we could get it done.

We travelled on for about another mile and moored between bridge's 34 and 35 where we knew  we could moor without being up to 2 feet from the bank. Most of the North Oxford Canal has sloping sides resulting in moored boats having to use their gang planks to be able to get on and off the boat. Tomorrow Rugby where we can visit the doctor for our 6 monthly checkup and then will spend Xmas in the vicinity.

1586 locks, 3309 ½ miles, 52 Tunnels, 43 swing bridges and 39 lift bridges since Nov 2006