At Cropredy....phase 1

I just did a short 45 minute cruise so that I was close to Cropredy, well, a 20 minute stroll. I had found a gig that I wanted to go to at the Brasenose Arms. I am also as close to a bus route as it gets around here so I walked to Williamscote and got a GA01/2 (don’t ask) bus to Braunston where I’d left the car. I popped into Daventry for a few provisions and then parked up on a lane near the boat’s mooring. I went for a little walk before fetching up at the pub. In effect I was sussing out moorings for next week. There is one good place but only room for half a dozen boats. It’s a 14 day mooring but some of the boats there look as if they are fairly well ensconced.


The crowd at the pub are amazing. As a people watcher I had loads of material. There was so much tie die and those hippie trousers we used to wear; leather waistcoats; dreadlocks; that sweet cigarette smell from the 60’s (wink wink); etc. Next to me were a table of boaters: a lovely family with three little daughters who were delightful, especially the little one who wanted to keep up with her sisters. They were with several boaters who got more and more drunk as the evening wore on (in a nice way). One had come over on his bike and I feared for his safety cycling back along the towpath. There was also a woman who appeared to be on her own but unlike me, who was sitting quietly trying to be invisible, she was in a world of her own dancing to the music in a unique and idiosyncratic way. For those reading this who know her, think Karaoke Karen stylee. Anyway a couple from South of Oxford came to share my table and we had a great chat about music. She was my age and he was, perhaps, a decade older, so we had much in common re gigs and artists and experiences. She had broken both of her legs a few weeks ago falling down some steps at Tesco (so it happens to all of us when we reach a certain age - your art of balance just disappears). The band were pretty good, lots of slide guitar and a fiddle, but firmly placed in the rock-blues genre. The drummer used to be with Status Quo, apparently.

Today, I awoke to find the boat on a slope, I’d tied her up too tight and the water had risen. It was like walking on the side of a hill. I’m off to Banbury later to find a mooring where I can leave Olivia until I can bring her back up to Cropredy for the festival. The Brasenose has got a fantastic line up for the festival weekend including King King (who we saw at Upton last week), Letherat (who are playing the main festival, too) and Ashley Hutchings’ Rainbow Chasers plus many others. Should be great.