29 July 2011 - Little Bourton to Cropredy

Decided not to move far as Ken needs to be back in Fleet on Monday and best route is to get train from Banbury.  We therefore dont want to go too far.  Nice spot we picked last night - lets stay here all day!  7:58am decision made.  8am all hell breaks loose just the other side of the hedge with diggers, D8s and other heavy earth moving equipment.  Seems the Environment Agency are trying to dig a hole to the centre of the earth for flood alleviation or somesuch - either way it was very noisy.  We held out to mid afternoon when decision#2 was formulated to move a few locks further north to get some peace & quiet.  Only a few hundred yards we thought so we'll just put the bikes on the roof, not bother putting them back on the bike rack at the back of the boat.  Annie cast off while I fired up the laptop and its canal mapping.  30 seconds later a squeal from Annie and I shot up, just in time to see my bike disappearing over the side with a splash.  It floated tantalizingly for a few seconds before slipping out of sight.  A boat had come round the corner as Annie was setting off, requiring her to take avoiding action..... which meant clipping some trees which caught the bike. I took a fix on a fast disappearing trail of bubbles and fortunately we were able to maneuver alongside and recover the bike with the boat hook - phew!
Our 'couple of locks' became extended to five as we encountered long lines of moored boats getting ready for the Cropredy Festival . Eventually we passed them all (you have to pass moored craft slowly on tickover) and turned Ceilidh round at a winding hole north of Cropredy and moored for the night.