Napton, Oxford Canal

 A heartbreaking day today.  We set off at 0445 and headed for Claydon, where we arrived at 0800 to discover a queue of 8 boats waiting for the locks to be unchained at 1000.  Thought that with all this rain that the drought emergency was over!

Anyway, the lock was unchained at 0900 and everyone set off, rushing to get over the top pound and the next lock which was due to be locked at 1345.

We got to the top lock at 1400 and the lock was still open, so we took a chance and set off down the Napton locks arriving at the bottom at 1615.  There was a BW man there and he kindly told us that the restriction had just been lifted and the locks would not be locked up tonight.

We could have stayed on the summit and come on down early tomorrow morning.

Still, we moored up at the empty moorings at the bottom of the locks and were in the Folly Pub for 1800 and ham, eggs and chips.  Well deserved after travelling 19 3/4 miles, 21 locks and 9 1/2 hours travelling time.

When we got to the top lock at Clayton there were two BW workmen there fashioning a new beam to the bottom gate.  The lock was operated using a piece of string and hard graft!

This card uses a recycled flower topper from another card.  I just mounted it onto some blue card and then onto a white card blank.