One of the Mill Houses along the way
Another Mill House
Doubling up to share the load - unusual diamond shape at Wyre Lock
A house on stilts to that it doesn't float away in future floods!
Another very swanky house on the Avon
A fabulous thatched roof
Coming into Evesham, lots of private moorings for cruisers - mostly with 'floating pontoons' in case the river level rises so the boats rise accordingly
Riverboat trips on the Avon
Hampton cable ferry, just outside of Evesham (it's manual!)
Some swan shots...
All swans are the property of the Queen of England and have a tag on them
Such elegant and graceful birds
And the cygnets are just the cutest things you can imagine!!
No ugly ducklings hereThursday night in Evesham:
The trees by the river with pretty green lights - our narrowboat is behind the one with lights on!!!
The trees by the river with pretty green lights - our narrowboat is behind the one with lights on!!!
The Bell Tower in Evesham at night
Thursday evening out for a curry
Barry trying the hottest curry they had - still not quite hot enough!!!
Friday 22 May
We went for a walk to Evesham Lock to see the Lock-keeper to check out possible moorings. Lovely man and his wife living there, who are happy for us to moor up by the lock on a little island, close to the weir, for 3 pounds a night. If I want to leave the boat they will look after it, just costs another pound a night. Hurrah! I can think of much worse places to be stranded in!
We then looked at booking Barry’s flight back to NZ and were advised to go to a Travel Agent who specialised in Australia and New Zealand. We did give them a go, but their prices were so high we politely made excuses and left, and booked the flight on the internet from the boat for tomorrow afternoon. I'm surprised travel agents haven't gone out of business yet, it's so much cheaper and easier to book on-line!
We then took the boat up to Evesham Marina and filled up with water and pumped out you know what! I'm going to have to try not to empty one or fill the other over the next 2-3 weeks while Barry is away! We also managed to arrange for the boat’s bottom to be blacked, and its central heating system – a ‘Wobaster’ – to be serviced; as well as getting the safety certificate sorted. That should, with a bit of luck, all get done the week after next. The only challenge now is how on earth I'm going to drive the boat from its mooring, through the lock, then up the river to the Marina! I think I shall be calling on our new-found friend Bob who's said I can call him for anything while I’m here, to see if he has any ideas. The only certainty is that I shan't be travelling alone or the boat is likely to be permanently beached somewhere and I'll have had a stroke with the stress of it!!!
So we spent the day getting everything organised on the boat before Barry leaves me alone. That’ll teach me to say that I was never going to be alone on the boat previously!
We went into Evesham in the late evening for a drink, but the pubs were mostly full of youngsters, not like the quaint little country pubs that we love. But Evesham is a lovely little place.
We went for a walk to Evesham Lock to see the Lock-keeper to check out possible moorings. Lovely man and his wife living there, who are happy for us to moor up by the lock on a little island, close to the weir, for 3 pounds a night. If I want to leave the boat they will look after it, just costs another pound a night. Hurrah! I can think of much worse places to be stranded in!
We then looked at booking Barry’s flight back to NZ and were advised to go to a Travel Agent who specialised in Australia and New Zealand. We did give them a go, but their prices were so high we politely made excuses and left, and booked the flight on the internet from the boat for tomorrow afternoon. I'm surprised travel agents haven't gone out of business yet, it's so much cheaper and easier to book on-line!
We then took the boat up to Evesham Marina and filled up with water and pumped out you know what! I'm going to have to try not to empty one or fill the other over the next 2-3 weeks while Barry is away! We also managed to arrange for the boat’s bottom to be blacked, and its central heating system – a ‘Wobaster’ – to be serviced; as well as getting the safety certificate sorted. That should, with a bit of luck, all get done the week after next. The only challenge now is how on earth I'm going to drive the boat from its mooring, through the lock, then up the river to the Marina! I think I shall be calling on our new-found friend Bob who's said I can call him for anything while I’m here, to see if he has any ideas. The only certainty is that I shan't be travelling alone or the boat is likely to be permanently beached somewhere and I'll have had a stroke with the stress of it!!!
So we spent the day getting everything organised on the boat before Barry leaves me alone. That’ll teach me to say that I was never going to be alone on the boat previously!
We went into Evesham in the late evening for a drink, but the pubs were mostly full of youngsters, not like the quaint little country pubs that we love. But Evesham is a lovely little place.
Our initial mooring in Evesham, Thursday night
One of the riverside walks
Evesham town across the river
Sandra looking very serious on the computer, trying to get internet coverage - OMG! look at that lovely boat hair!!!Saturday 23 May
Barry left on the train at 1027 to catch the 1615 flight to Los Angeles and then on to Auckland and Gisborne, arriving in Gisborne at 0845 Monday morning, 2145hrs Sunday evening UK time. Very sad to see him go, but it’s good that we have managed to organise it so that he can spend some quality time with his dad along with other members of his family.
The blog may be written from 2 Hemispheres for a couple of weeks, not sure how it will work! Obviously there won’t be any of Barry’s gorgeous photos, apart from the ones he took before he left that I have to try and get on. But there will still be notes from me, and the occasional photo!
It’s a strange feeling being on my own on the boat, I’ve spent the day walking around Evesham and then cleaning and tidying just to keep myself busy. The sun has been shining, a beautiful English summers day, typical isn’t it now that Barry has left the country!!!
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