Country: England
Distance travelled:
Weather: rain in the morning then mostly fine all afternoon

Mark and I spent the morning cleaning the van and doing other associated chores until the time we were to meet up with Marion and Allister. The shower and toilet where given a thorough clean, the floor was swept at least twice and the stove and sink were wiped down with disinfectant wipes. One of the oft mentioned worries on many blogs and forums on motor homing I have read is the chance of getting sick from lack of hygiene. I hate to imagine what having any kind of tummy bug in this confined space would be like!

We have decided to buy a new Thetford cassette for the chemical loo as ours seems to occasionally not seal properly when used. We could probably put up with it if we were only out in the van every couple of weeks but we will be camping full time for the next nine or ten months so neither of us want to take the chance that it won’t last. Strangely Mark found a place where we can buy a cassette, a new seat and two bottles of chemicals cheaper than just the new cassette.

We were just sorting the last of our stuff into what we want to take with us on the narrow boat when Marion and Allister arrived. We hurriedly finished packing and then went through the rigamarole of emptying our grey water and topping up the fresh. This caravan park is set up for caravans where they have a large rolling water carrier for both fresh and grey and can get them right up close to the tap. We can only get as close as the size of the van allows. We have an extension for the grey water outlet which gives us about three meters and a hose to plug into the tap for fresh water which is about the same length. This all should be plenty except in this case there was a caravan parked right beside the tap so we could only nose the van up next to it and cross our fingers. It worked though, so we are all sorted for water when we get back next week.

The van was duly parked over the road in the boat hire carpark and we all jumped into the Rav4 to go do the shopping for the essentials we couldn’t live without whilst boating. We plan to dine in a few canal side pubs and hopefully there will be a shop or two for when we get low on milk etc so we didn’t really need that much, which is lucky since the fridge is the same size as the one in the van.

Once we had stocked up, we headed back and transferred all our gear into the boat. Then we were given the induction tour by Colin and Mike, showing us were everything is and the ins and outs of the plumbing and electrical system and so forth. Finally, as we have decided to head North rather than South to Oxford, they showed us the rather cumbersome process of turning a 60′, 19 tonne steel boat around in a narrow canal. I’m so glad we will only be doing that once!

With all the technicalities taken care of, it was a hands-on lesson on steering this behemoth up to the first lock on our course. Our boat, Conqueror, steers from the rear and considering his size, isn’t the most responsive vessel (I know boats are supposed to be female but Conqueror seems more masculine to me). We were walked through the intricacies of operating the lock and then our tutor, Mike left us to it. He claims the whole thing is simple and we will be old hands by the end of the week but I’m not so confident.

We motored on up the canal to Banbury where we encountered our first lock. Great, first time by ourselves and with an audience! And the added complexity of a lift bridge which has to be raised and then lowered as it is part of the pedestrian system. I had a conversation with a gentleman while he waited for me to lower the bridge again. He was wondering why it is nearly always the women operating the locks while the men are steering the boat. I told him I’m not a good enough driver to attempt to put a 6′ wide boat into a 6′ 4″ slot. I’ll admit Conqueror is steel hulled and bounces nicely off the sides of the lock but it’s not a good look. He saw my point and agreed, he mustn’t think much of women drivers…. I may give it a go when there is no one standing around watching though.

We puttered further along the canal until we found a stretch far enough away from roads and other signs of life where we moored up for the night across from a paddock with an absolutely huge tree and lambs gamboling around happily. Pegs were hammered into the ground, intricate knots were tied and we relaxed happily, looking forward to the morrow and further boating adventures.