The Severn

Tewkesbury to Worcester visitor moorings : 16 miles, 4 locks
To date : 769 miles, 484 locks

A day late with this post!

We woke to a misty morning at Tewkesbury and were ready to go a little earlier than usual.  As it turned out there were two locks of boats waiting to go down onto the Severn ahead of us so there was a bit of waiting around to do.

The lock-keeper was a helpful fellow and it was nice to not have to do the work.  He mentioned to Carol that he'd only had 2 days off in the last 18 months...... he doesn't like other folk operating "his" lock.  He gave us some helpful advice from the lockside as we headed out.  I got a couple of photos of the stranded narrowboat as we cruised past.  It has been their for 18 months and they're unable to find the owner.  I guess nobody's going to want to pay to have that boat moved.

We followed the lockies instructions and swung wide at the junction with The Severn until we could see Mythe Bridge.... to avoid a sandbar.  The river is wide compared to the Avon and rather a boring days cruising.  The banks are high and with the the foggy old day we had it wasn't too exciting.  We passed beneath Thomas Telford's Mythe Bridge.  We saw the "gravel barges" the lock-keeper had told us about..... first one low in the water being loaded up.... then one coming towards us quite high in the water.  It turned behind us to go in for a new load of gravel.  A little further along was the unloading dock.  The gravel was being dumped into a hopper and then up a conveyor belt.  Interesting.

We planned a stop for a browse and lunch at Upton upon Severn.  As we neared the mooring spot we could see there was nothing free.  Barry and Carol got grounded going too close to the edge but managed to move off again to breast up with a moored boat.  We went beyond the bridge where we saw a fellow out on his boat.  He was chatty... we'd seen nb Belgium back at Pershore... so we breasted up to them and went off to explore the town.  We didn't want to take too long with a few hours still ahead of us but it was worth the stop.

We stumbled upon an antique store that had a lovely pair of lamps.  Somehow we emerged from the store with a cardboard box in Mick's arms.  They're heavy and they'll have to go in our suitcase when we go home!!

I worked for a good couple of hours of the Severn cruise.  There was nothing to see anyway.  Mick did all the steering today so I could work.  We cobbled together a stool tall enough so he could sit for a while.  Eventually we reach the lock before Worcester and boy was that a huge lock.  It was, in fact, a pair of locks.  The one on the left was absolutely enormous but the gates of the right hand one opened and even that was daunting enough. 

Negotiating the turn off the river onto the canal wasn't easy.  There's no big sign pointing the way and we didn't know if it was a manned lock (Barry and Carol had once done this coming from the canal onto the river and they thought it was) but when we arrived it appeared nothing was happening up there.  We signalled to Barry to go onto the landing stage and we'd breast up.  It was nice to be on the canal again and although the gates on the two locks were big and heavy, the paddle winding wasn't bad at all.

We moored up at the visitor moorings.  Diglis Basin looks like a nice spot and there's plenty of apartments overlooking the canal.  We put of exploring until morning.

Last day on the Avon

Pershore to Tewkesbury : 14 miles, 3 locks
To date : 753 miles, 480 locks

We had a grey, overcast day for the most part.  In the afternoon the sun battled to come out but all it really did was create a terrible glare on the river ahead.  It was mild though.

We moved just down a little from our mooring first to fill our water tanks.  The lovely willow at the river edge hung so low that we could barely see ahead.  While the water tank filled, I got out the garden pruners and gave the willow a haircut.

We had three locks today.  The first, Pershore, was just ahead.  We'd seen in our river guide that there were moorings on the lock island there too.  We had thought we might go down and check them out as we enjoyed mooring at Wyre Lock.  I'm glad we didn't bother because the lock at Pershore was nowhere near as pretty an environment.  The best moorings in Pershore were right where we'd been!  I enjoyed being there.  While I worked I had a view on one side of a grassy field and Asda and the village beyond.  On the side hatch side we could have been in any rural location.  Usually just a swan in sight.

The next lock was an interesting one.  It had a swing bridge in the centre of the lock.  To enter the lock I first had to jump off and open the swing bridge.  Once we'd emptied the lock we could close the bridge again as we had plenty of room beneath it.

We had planned to stop at the last lock for lunch.  Again, there were moorings showing on our guide.  When we got there we found the mooring was no longer a public one.  I walked around to investigate and a fellow.... perhaps he was a lock keeper.... came to offer assistance.  When I explained our dilemma he said to just moor on the other side of the island and if anyone asks, just say we're waiting for water!  There was a couple of plastic boats on the water point already.  We had a quick lunch and headed off again.

From then on I worked for most of the way.  Mick called me if there was something of interest to see but I got my work for the day done.  We passed beneath Eckington Bridge, built in 1728 and made from a lovely reddish stone.  We passed beneath the M6 with trucks whizzing by overhead.

Arriving in Tewkesbury we pulled into the first mooring we saw beyond the bridge.  We'll be off again in the morning to tackle the Severn so we weren't overly fussed.  Barry was rather unimpressed with the spot behind us as there were some apartments beside it.  He fussed a bit and eventually moved just beyond the lock to a vacant mooring there.  The rest of us were a little mystified as to why that spot was any better but he was happy so peace descended.

It was 3pm so we had only a couple of hours to explore Tewkesbury.  We visited the Tewkesbury Abbey, another amazing building well worth the visit.  It had a fantastic organ - photo below for my um!  The town itself had plenty of interesting old buildings.  We could have done with an extra day here but unfortunately we just can't see everything.

We've been a bit disappointed with the Avon river guide we bought as there are moorings and facilities that no longer exist.  We've been caught out a couple of times.  It's such a shame that so many are disappearing.  The moorings are extremely limited as it is!