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Adventures in Middle England St George's Youth Club went on their annual canal boat trip with Tony and Jane Rice-Oxley who organised it, with a much appreciated helping hand from Julia and Richard Spurgeon. The holiday lasted for a week starting on Saturday 23rd March at Braunston taking the Oxford Canal to Little Heyford (near Banbury) and back to Braunston in time for Saturday 30th March. Fourteen members of the Youth Club attended and for some people, like me, it was their first time, whereas others had been on the holiday many times before. We took two separate boats, one slightly bigger than the other, named Chiltern, Tony and Jane were captains of that crew. Berwyn was the other boat, managed by Julia and Richard. We set off on most mornings at about nine o'clock and stopped for lunch at approximately one for an hour, and then moored up in the evening at sixish. Food was not a problem when our two fantastic cooks, Jane and Julia were around. Jane's home-made soups and Julia's coffee and her mum's sultana cake were very popular. The adults were kept happy with their G&T in the evenings. The holiday had many highlights, good and bad. For example, early on in the week the toilet flooded (luckily it was only clean water) and Tony injured his leg. These were definitely the catastrophes from the week. Everyone enjoyed the small concert we put together on Thursday, the games and the visit to the pub, all of which took place in the evenings after a hard-working day. We stopped off twice in Banbury where there was lots to do. On the way out we went swimming in the local pool and on our return we went shopping; we bought presents for the leaders here. We did not have time to visit Banbury Cross. We also made many friends over the holiday, some of which included a pair of swans who invited themselves to lunch and a pigeon from Gropredy who was surprisingly tame and helped us to get rid of all our stale bread. Also most of the girls fell in love with the lambs and wanted to adopt them. The picturesque countryside was a contrast from the urban route that the Youth Club took last year around London. The weather was definitely on our side too. The sun shone constantly throughout the week and allowed us to get a tan (or burnt in the case of some). Unfortunately half of our crew caught 'scurvy' but most of them recovered fairly quickly. Thankfully no-one fell into the canal this year, which was a relief to us new-comers. A great time was had by everyone and even those who had been ill managed a few smiles throughout the week! Sarah Baker |
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page last updated 16 MAY 2002 |
