Oxford Canal:Nell Bridge

A wet morning again.  It had been decided to take the boat down to Bridge 168 to put it as close to Morrisons Supermarket for a big shop as we could.  Good practice for the new crew - one windlass operated lifting bridge and the Town Lock.  Finding a place to moor is always guess work.  Do you take the first one you come across but walk far or go further with the risk of being disappointed.  We took the risk and after one failure settled for the inset just before the bridge in question.  When the shoppers returned with bursting bags and the trolley I never thought the fridge would cope, however with some cunning moved all was safely put away.  We carried on once all this was done and the rain stopped eventually.  The intention was to moor at the “pig Farm” which is an offside mooring offering a farm shop, attractive grounds and electricity.  We have moored here before and our approach to the farmer was initially looking good until he saw the children, saying that his insurance required that all children were offsite by 6.pm.  That was that.  No choice but to move on and to continue running the engine for the next 2 - 3 hours to restore battery capacity.  We moved just around the corner to some metal piling a few yards prior to the lifting bridge.  No problem.