Iced narrowboats on the South Oxford

Thursday, 02 December 2010 18:03

A walk along the towpath at Thrupp

The towpath beside moorings at Thrupp

As the whole country freezes, it is not surprising that narrowboaters are iced in. Continuous cruisers like ourselves have settled down to wait for the thaw. BW and the local mooring wardens "do not expect narrowboats to move in adverse conditions". It is not only our blacking but other moored boats that have to be considered, particularly GRP cruisers who could end up with a hole in the hull from jagged broken ice.

We do not have much snow as you can see but plenty of ice near the sani-station, with taps iced up.

Our friends who live near Rotherham have had plenty of snow in the last few days though. This is Malcolm Richardson (one of the Richlow Guides Team) on his front drive yesterday.

Here is an unashamed plug for the guides, as two new titles are on their way. The second part of the South Pennine Ring and the guide to the North Yorkshire Waterways are due out in the early part of 2011. We found the Chesterfield Canal Guide to be invaluable on our cruise in the summer.

Back to Thrupp - the ducks have found a short stretch of water and are being fed by boaters and local walkers.

Our walk took us back to Shipton on Cherwell and here are a couple of photos from there.

On our way back we were invited for a cuppa aboard Wrens-Nest. The boating community here is great and includes amongst others Bones and Milly M, of course! So what is the weather going to throw at us over the next few days? - more very cold temperatures I am sure.

Duckprints and ice from our porthole