Beaut morning to head off towards the village of Cropredy today.
The village of Cropredy has its roots in Anglo-Saxon times and its name is thought to be derived from the Old English word “croppe” – meaning hill and “ridig” – small stream. The village and its manor were mentioned in the Domesday Book (1086) and before the Reformation, it was part of the estate held by the Bishop of Lincoln. Must get this Domesday Book loaded onto the kindle and have a read of it as it must have been a best seller in its time
We started our descent off the summit heading down towards the Thames River which is about 32 miles south.
The weekly application of crack to the blooms is obviously doing them a lot of good. We are constantly keeping the water up to them as the sun and wind is making them super thirsty. They get fed canal water which we are sure has lots of different nutrients – many of them not necessarily that good though.
This gorgeous little red tractor is actually a Porsche. We saw it as we came down one of the locks this afternoon and Fraser spoke to the owner who gave him some information on it. Whilst they may not be as well known as the company’s sports car products, Porsche-Diesel tractors also have a reputation for being every bit as well-engineered, robust and capable of delivering high levels of performance. Between 1956 and 1963 over 125,000 Porsche-Diesel tractors were manufactured.
There was a sole boater in front of us going down the eight locks today which created delays for us. This caused Di to go into boredom mode so she spent her time dressing up bollards. It was either that or sudoku.
There must still be a lot of illiterate people around as lots of dog poop on the path. Something we haven’t seen on this trip is the Poop tree. This is where you pick up your dog poop into a plastic bag and then hang it from a tree. Then, all your fellow men/women come along and add their poop bag to the same tree. It has been mentioned to us that maybe they are hanging it there and then coming to pick it up on their way back. Problem is that no one ever seems to return back along the same path.
Why go to the bother of picking up the poop in the first place if you are just going to hang it from a tree. The other favourite place to hang your poop bag is on a fence. Are we missing something or is this just a quaint English tradition as we have never seen it in any other country we have travelled to.
Close to the end of the day and Fraser is now going do-lally and dreaming of a warm beer.
We pulled into Cropredy along side our friends Mike and Lesley’s boat Charlie Mo. We were going to catch up with the guys tomorrow as they had other commitments today, but they invited us over for a drink and a chat prior to going out. Great to see the guys again. The village is winding up for the big Fairport Convention which is a three-day music festival starting on the 11th August. Already the village is having pre-festival activities happening. Lesley and Mike are intimately involved in helping to feed 22,000 people from a small village of 600 people.
On farmland east of the village, fields are set up for “bring your own tent” or “glamping in style”. The festival has expanded from a one-day event first held in 1980 (although the band had played fundraisers in the village since 1976) to the three-day extravaganza. We are not big music buffs but this might just be up our alley as it is more country and soft rock. Alas though, we must keep moving south.
We cheated and went to the pub for dinner as didn’t feel like cooking and then back to the boat to watch the synopsis of the first day of the Commonwealth Games.
Rowkin Rovings Blog 