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Here are further images of the journey through England’s midland waterways taken by me walking alongside Sam and James in Pacific Pete in July 2003.
This stone stork beside the Cherwell section of the Oxford Canal seemed amused by the attempts of their mother to draw her offspring away from him.
Small bridges, narrow locks and a few narrowboats on this section required careful negotiation by the rower. Navigator James looked quite thoughtful in the third picture.
The River Soar for part of the Oxford Union Canal stretch. The towpaths here were better tended than some. Willowherb thrived in the brickwork of this bridge.
Dragonflies mated; waterlilies bloomed; and a stone wall provided a backdrop for wild flowers.
An art group concentrated hard on a lock as we approached Leicester.
Nearing the city of my birth, we passed a derelict graffiti-bedaubed factory,
outside which a leaf lay on a bed of water weed.
Soon Pacific Pete was gliding through the city.
Fast forward to today, and we have a supermoon,
heralding in Jackie’s classic cottage pie served with perfect cabbage, broccoli, and carrots, with which she drank Hoegaarden whilst I drank more of the Chateauneuf.