We have been here 2 days now.. and oh boy.. it didn’t half rain. The field on the other side of the tow path did have a few puddles in it.. now its a total wash out – looks like Winter 2019/2020 hasn’t quite finished throwing water at us yet.. at least its not snowing! (and if CRT state there was not enough rain last winter to maintain canal levels this coming summer.. its not the weather that’s the problem – it’s them not catching/directing and using what was thrown at us correctly!)
Its another reasonable day – and time to move on into Banbury. This should be a fairly straightforward run – no seriously low bridges expected to stop us now were off the Cherwell stretches – so even though it bucketed it down last night.. that should not affect the run today.
It certainly looks like the fields outside of Kings Sutton are holding onto last nights rain – last summer – this fields was dry, and so were the “log piles”.. not now!

And some of it is escaping into the canal.. guess that’s another spot CRT will need to check over soon..


And up and through Kings Sutton Lock.


I think CRT may need to come and have a look at this one.. seems the weir for the lock is blocked and the water is not going away as quickly as it should do… and the only reason the water levels are not higher is because its topping the lock gates and escaping that way – instead of down the weir.


And so into Banbury – which even now still feels like were coming home.
A quick stop off outside Castle Quay shopping arcade to fill up the water tank, on past Tooley’s boat yard, past the building works (as they are building a new Aldi here in place of the car park).. and onto the mooring next to the fields and the park.
During winter, we have 14 days here, instead of the normal 7 during the summer.. so we may just stay for a few weeks (lets see how the tanks and bottles (gas) hold up) were going to be heading to Cropredy next – just not sure how soon 🙂