Well at last, having acquired the necessary connecting cables for tablet and
Mifi I can attempt to blog our progress.
So Wednesday morning saw us leaving this picturesque spot on the
Staff and
Worcs canal and head out onto the rather more daunting River Severn. Last year
we did just 8 miles and 2 locks and found it alarming because this river is so
wide, often over 200 feet wide.
As we left the lock at Stourport in great trepidation we put on our life
jackets and I steeled myself for seven hours of nail biting as we headed out
onto the mighty river; only it didn’t look quite as daunting as I remembered. Whether
it was having life jackets that made the difference or familiarity, but we were
not nearly as alarmed as we had been the year before.
The biggest problem we noticed was an almost complete absence of landmarks
to tell us where we were. The banks were fairly high and often we could not see
over them to identify where we were, so the locks came up on us unexpectedly.
By lunchtime we reached Worcester
so stopped for lunch and to let Max off, but it was not a particularly nice
spot and there was a charge of £4 for 24 hours, so we moved on about ¾ mile,
past all the swans,
we counted over 60, and
found mooring spot for free.
We wandered up through the city to find a GP surgery for OH to get his INR
done in the morning, made an appointment and then went into the shopping centre
for coffee and cake before allowing OH to insist he knew the way back. One very
long walk the wrong direction, in the rain before I stamped my foot and walked
off in the right direction and he followed me back to where we were moored. No
wonder men like their Satnav’s when they have so little sense of direction.
Thursday morning we left Worcester
about 11 after OH had returned from the docs. and plodded on down through a
mixture of sunshine and showers along more magnificent river to Tewkesbury,
where we spent a lovely afternoon
and
evening and had a very nice Indian meal.
Friday we left Tewkesbury heading north on the Avon
and very soon discovered that the Avon was far less
appealing than the Severn, although less big and
daunting. Whilst the Severn is majestic, with high wooded sides and Welsh hills
in the distance, the Avon runs through flat fields with few mooring places and
very little to commend it, although we did see these beautiful weeping willows.
On Friday we stopped for lunch, in the sunshine, at a little mooring spot,
south of Pershore in the middle of nowhere. Within twenty minutes it was
chucking down with rain, so we decided to stop for the night.
So I thought, nothing else to do, I would peruse the desks on WOYWW and
generally catch up with Facebook, emails and get this uploaded. However when I
decided I would blog a record of our trip, in addition to forgetting the
various charger, I failed to allow for one further thing. I need internet
access and the rivers Severn and
Avon are not flush
with 4G aerials.
There we were in the middle of nowhere, no internet, no phone, no radio or
TV and it was bucketing down with rain and I was beginning to worry that the
river was going to flood and we wouldn’t be able to move for a week, and no one
would know.
Of course, in the morning the rain had stopped, the river hadn’t risen
appreciable at all and we pottered onto Evesham for Saturday night, which is
where we are now for Saturday evening.
Well thats all for now, maybe I will be able to be a bit more regular with the updates now.
