I’ve actually been lucky in the midst of bad luck as I headed south. There was another holdup, this one just a day ahead of me. A lift bridge was hit by a car so the canal was closed for a few days. When the repair crew arrived, it took them 45 minutes to fix it! Not a problem for me either way, I’m ahead of schedule enough for that kind of thing (by design).

I had my first Sunday roast of the trip, it was okay but not the best I’ve ever had. The pudding (dessert) was excellent though! It was a good location to stop, got fuel and water, pumped out the holding tank, and received a grocery deliver. Fully restocked!

I spent a few days at a nice remote mooring, doing inside jobs on the boat when it looked like rain, outside work when the sun shone.

If you’ve never seen a UK Kingfisher, they are truly amazing looking birds. I didn’t get a picture but had one dive into the water next to me, then fly off with something in its beak. The colour is the most vivid aquamarine and flashes in the sun. Look them up sometime!

I was forced to spend the next few days hiding from the sun. Temperatures hovered around 33C which tends to be amplified inside a black steel tube.It seemed logical to spend the hottest part of the day quietly sitting in front of a large fan. Fortunately maximum solar power comes along with this weather.

Just to make sure that extreme weather didn’t all go in one direction, I was treated to a great thunder and lightning storm. It didn’t pass directly over me but there was some brilliant flashes, thunder claps loud enough to literally rattle the boat, and a torrential downpour.

It doesn’t look as impressive on video but things have been a little boring with the oppressive heat so I thought I’d share it!

I’m pretty done with the heat. There’s a really good reason that I love the winter so much, I don’t do well in the heat. It’s been another week or more of 33C plus, amplified inside the boat. Despite that, I’ve arrived in Oxford and it’s a rather strange deja-vu moment. The last time I stopped here in 2018 during my first year on the canals, it was at least this warm. I actually had to shorten my visit. The museums, as wonderful and interesting as they undoubtedly were, were also insufferably hot. I’m not going to even try this time. Hopefully when Rianne and I have completed the navigable Thames, we’ll come back here and visit this incredible university town.