Yesterday I was out exploring the canal again, dodging rain showers and revisiting some of the lesser known reaches of the Oxford Canal.

It has been a few years since I cycled this particular stretch between Oxford and Kidlington and although there are still some quite rough bits where the path turns narrow and bumpy, there have also been some improvements. The stretch to Duke’s Lock now has a nice new tarmac towpath which makes cycling so much easier. It is also here that where I stopped to sketch the view below. The narrowboat in the foreground is the ‘Doolally’ which featured quite a pile of bicycles on it’s roof.

The canals are still quite busy, which isn’t surprising given that its holiday season, the campsites are likely to be all full and the present restrictions still make travel abroad difficult. You could probably do a lot worse than potter around the canals for a week or two.

Here is an picture of one of several narrowboats passing while I was drawing.