From the Severn to the Avon

Monday was a gentle layover day with some necessary shopping for grandsons` birthdays and a surprise visit in the afternoon from our friend Wally.   He had phoned am as he was en route home after a visit to the lake district.  He eventually found us after circumnavigating Worcester and being sent in completely the wrong direction by some chap in a garage!!!  

We were moored just along the canal past Diglis basin which is all very well kept and has a nice looking small marina.

On Monday evening I asked `el capitano` what time he wanted to depart on the morrow and was told he wasn't bothered and couldn't make a decision.............hence when I was rudely awakened at 0710 I was not impressed, albeit a cup of tea also appeared.......

However as always I rose to the challenge and by 0730 I was reversing back to the waterpoint.   Luckily there was one space for us, as the other point was taken up by an overnight moorer!

Another bit of reversing back to the two locks down onto the river.  We had just missed teaming up with a hire boat but after Geoff helped them with the extremely stiff gates they stayed to help us through and waited for us at the second lock....very gentlemanly.....

Then it was out onto the river again and with hardly any flow, not at all like when we arrived on Friday.

It was then a 3 hour trip down the river to Tewkesbury with long stretches of nothing except greenery, admittedly all very lush.   There are only one or two items of interest in this stretch.

There are a couple of gravel  quays 

We passed one of the ships fully laden, looked very dicey to me!

Upton-on-Severn

The only town we passed was Upton-on-Severn, seen above with their new flood defences showing.  It was fortunate we had decided we were not going to stop here as the small amount of mooring was almost completely full.

Mythe bridge just before the turning into the Avon.

The turning is just a little way after the bridge on the left and anyone who has not passed this way before could be forgiven for going right past it.  Not only is it hidden in the bushes but the sign to it on the right hand bank is completely obscured by branches and you only see it once you have turned.  Today it would not have been a big problem but when the stream is running fast it would be a pain.

The lock-keeper had told us that he was closed for lunch from 1245 until 2pm and we arrived there at 1235 wondering if we would be lucky......well we were...just....we were also lucky to get a decent mooring place.  The is not a vast quantity of mooring and by mid-afternoon it was all filled up.

We bought our licence for 14 days which surprisingly had only gone up £5 from £55 to £60 since our last visit 3 years ago.   That time we were travelling down to the Severn.

16.37 miles, 4 locks, 5hrs 31 min