Back to Barby

We left early.  Turned out to be a good move.  The HS2 engineers were busy banging sheet piling into the back of the towpath I guess at a position where the bridge abutments will be located.  They stopped work while we passed.  I guess because it is a noisy job and my ears need protecting.  (I'm deaf anyway and my hearing aids have a noice cancelling funtion which is brilliant on the back of the boat because the engine and propeller noise is largely cancelled out).  We reached the top of Marston Doles at 7:50.  Nobody about, so down the first lock, having checked the water level in the pound below first.  The second lock was full, but just as I was about to get the boat in, a swan swam in.   I think they (swans) must be very savvy knowing that I will have to get the bread out to entice them out.   That worked.   Napton top lock was swarming with a hire boat family as I approached, all appearing to be having a really fun time, so much so that a young teenager offered to work the lock for me in spite of my protestations that it wasn't necessary.  OK!  Gift horse and all that!  The next two locks were opposite directions at exactly the right time and after that I was on a roll, so as to speak culminating in a really chatty volunteer lock keeper at the bottom lock who had the gate open for me as I arrived.  I exited the bottom at 9:50.   The GU section allows for faster speed up until the piled section where moored boats abound, and coming up behind a really slow boat getting tangled up with opposite direction stuff and moored boats tends to make me fall asleep, so we moored up at bridge 100 for "lunch".  The Oxford was busy with moored boats in all the usual places, probably having lunch as well.   There are some tricky bridges once past the Dunchurch Pools Marina with poor visibilty on the other side requiring a slow approach.  At one of these with a following sharp right hand bend, we were were just through the bridge when a boat appeared in front obviously cutting the corner and needing an emergency stop on my part.  Shortly after that we were back in the marina.  It had been a really warm day and fluid replacement for the single hander has to be prepared in advance.  I had a large jug of pink squash on the back which looked just like red diesel.  It ceratainly kept the boat moving.