Back to Tewkesbury and then Upton on Severn

Tuesday 9th June

The picture below was taken on Monday evening when the sea cadets were out in force practicing.........is the future of the British navy to be all female????

We were unsure what the state of the Severn would be for our planned departure and the lock keeper had told us to ring him about 8.15am to check. By the time we managed to contact him (he was out and about doing jobs!) he said it was OK but would we wait about an hour as there were two other boats going through and one of them was watering and doing a pump-out. By the time he was ready it was 10.15 before we were in the lock and no sign of the third boat.

By now it was high tide and since it was Spring Tides this part of the river is tidal up to Lower Lode Lock just before Tewkesbury. So we had not only the current against us but the tide as well and it took us 4 hours to reach Tewkesbury. The original plan had been to go as far as Upton on Severn but as we were still just in date on our Avon licence we decided to go up the lock into Tewkesbury.

The run up is pleasant enough but devoid of much interest as the trees cover all the banks.

The one interesting thing we passed is shown below........the owners of this home obviously did not wish to be caught out by the floods again!

Our friends Geoff & Gill Smith came to visit in the evening and brought us some of our mail which we had had forwarded to them. We repaired to "Ye Old Black Bear" the pub opposite and had an excellent and incredibly cheap meal. Mixed Grill for £6.59 can't be neaten and there was so much that what I couldn't eat had to be put in a doggy bag for Barnaby....

Wednesday 10th June

A gentle start today as the plan was just to hop up the river to Upton on Severn. Whilst watering before departure we chatted to the lock keeper and he showed us his album of pictures of the flood here in 2007.....quite horrific. The lock was not visible and the lock keepers hut just had the top of the roof showing.

Mythe Bridge just after leaving Tewkesbury

Another pleasant but uninteresting run to Upton. The sun was shining and was even quite hot so we were not complaining. We met no other boats until Geoff came to a sharp right hand bend. He was giving the bend a wide berth in case it was shallow, when all of a sudden a large trip boat appeared, closely followed by a working barge! Both going at a goodly pace which certainly disturbed his morning reverie.

Further on we passed the gravel plant which uses these working barges, how nice to see the canals being put to use.

We reached Upton at mid-day and searched for somewhere to moor. We had been warned that space was scare and that we would probably have to breast up. At first glance even this didn't look possible but a chap on the small pontoon told us we could moor inside as it was deep enough so a couple of turns later we were snug inside. How lucky we were as the rain started as soon as we had the pram cover up and it did not let up for the rest of the day, complete with thunder and lightning. Geoff was therefore unable to go for his normal explore of a new place. If the sun shines tomorrow we may stay over a day to see the town in a better light.