Tootling about in Tewkesbury

Monday 18 May
We stayed put in Tewksbury today and had a good look around. Another lovely town, full of very old black and white and mostly completely crooked buildings. My friend Sarah came to visit us and we had home baked rolls and soup (Heinz, not home made, I’m not quite that domesticated and I don’t have a blender!) for lunch.

The High Street

Tewkesbury Abbey

One of the weirs/floodgates in Tewkesbury - a huge flood in July 2007 almost wiped out the town!

Cool door knocker!

One of the many alleyways in Tewkesbury

Another of the many alleyways in Tewkesbury. There were 90 but now only about 30 remain.

Buildings in all sorts of shapes and designs

Dinky church

Our mooring in Tewkesbury

Tewkesbury lock, from the River Severn to the River Avon

The bridge at Tewkesbury - boats can only go under the right hand arch!

Some beautiful black and white buildings in Tewkesbury

How crooked is the old mill building?!

The weather remains very changeable; bright sunshine one minute and pouring with rain the next, and still that ear biting chill in the wind – when is the warm summer that Barry promised us all going to appear?! I may have to sue him for breach of contract if it doesn’t come soon!

We had a lovely meal and a few drinks this evening in The Black Bear, the oldest pub in Gloucester, built in 1308. Celebrated it's 700th birthday last year. Allegidly haunted!!

Ye Olde Black Bear Inn & one of the few photo's of us together with a little camera trickery!!!

We’ll amble up the Avon tomorrow, but won’t go too far as we have to stretch out the next 15 days to get our money’s worth out of the river license…

down to Upton...

Saturday 16 May continued…


We left Worcester after lunch, dodging the boats still racing - they must've all been so cold bless them!

Racing boats and another graceful swan

Trains, vans, boats and canoes!


Leaving Worcester

What is a group of swans called???

The start of the race

I think the River Severn woke up today and had colic!! No more sleeping babies, just wave upon wave of pain – but I suspect it was still quite tame in comparison to some days! At times we had waves breaking on the bow, surfing the Severn! The sun peeped through the cloud intermittently, but mostly there was a biting cold wind (hence my get up of ear warmer, woollen hat - thanks Kim, it was the South American woollen one you bought me - and Berghaus windproof jacket hood) and of course driving rain!

I can just about see where I'm going!

Not many sights along the way, though we did pass a very large boat and a stunning building that even an MP’s 2nd home allowance wouldn’t quite cover! We also saw a beautiful Kingfisher; wow what an awesome bird that is! Orange breast and a sapphire blue, with hues of purple, back and wings. Unfortunately it moved too swiftly for a photo, even for the amazing Barry…

Worcester Riverboat Cruise

Once we arrived at Upton, Barry took off for a bike ride and checked out the local area…

The bridge at Upton-Upon-Severn and The Kings Head where we went for a drink

Our mooring Saturday night

One of the sunny parts of the day, early evening, just outside of Upton

Amazing colours and an unbelievably blue sky (didn't last long!)

How the other half live

Looks like a Monet I think! Beautiful...

The sky begins to darken once more...

Upton-Upon-Severn is a very happening place on a Saturday night, there must be more pubs than homes here! There was a live band on until midnight in The Kings Head, and a disco going on in the pub next door. We went to the bar of The Kings Head, right by the waterfront, and saw some of the local characters. We also had a couple of drinks with Simon from narrowboat 'Amy' who was parked next door to us and has been following our route since Audlum. Simon and Barry talked about the possibility of travelling down to Sharpness (where he comes from) and going down the Severn Estuary to Bristol. OMG! Not sure that is a good idea at all, though it would mean that we wouldn’t have to go the long way round to get there. Mmm, we’ll see, not sure I’m that adventurous…

Sandra and Simon - the latter a little worse for wear after 2 pints of strong cider!

Sunday 17 May
The sun shone briefly this morning so we went into the town and had a walk round and bought provisions, and managed to find a cafe selling real cappuncino's - two other places we tried only had the instant Nescafe powdered crap - I think the English concentrtate more on tea than coffee, but as a Kiwi I'm now used to good coffee! The Bell coffee house patron had his coffee machine on even though he was shut (long story about a BMW crash), and made us two - very nice man thank you!

The 'Pepper pot' tower at Upton

After much deliberation (because the weather has been mostly absolutely dreadful today), we finally set off for Tewkesbury around 1600hrs. We arrived here late afternoon and, due to the fact that we had to pay 55 pounds for a license to be on the River Avon (crikey!), we will now be cruising slowly towards Stratford-Upon-Avon over the next 15 days (the duration of the license)rather than going down to Gloucester and out to the Severn Estuary (hurrah!).

We are, however, boatbound and haven't ventured to any of the lovely pubs in Tewksbury as yet - if only it would stop raining!!!!!!!!!! Could be the river will have risen so much by the morning that we will not get under the bridge...

Messing about on the river...

Friday 15 May
We left Stourport today before the hordes came for the ‘boat enthusiasts’ weekend’; as well as the fact that our mooring only allowed us to stay until midday. My mum and dad returned as they’d forgotten a piece of our washing (thanks mum!) and also brought a parcel that had been delivered for Barry – a missing part of his brewing kit. Barry jumped up and down on his bike when I told him it had arrived, so now he can really get a move on with the home brew which he's started but has been waiting for the forgotten ingredient!

Mum and dad were persuaded to help with the 3 locks that took us out onto the River Severn...

My mum looking pretty as a picture bless her

So if we're all doing the lock, and Barry is taking the phot, who's manning the boat as it sinks into the abyss???

After reading a few things about the Severn, I had been a little nervous (thanks for your reassurance Roger whoever you are!) and had already checked out that the life jacket was a good fit, then just before driving into it I tried on the life ring for size too!

I needn’t have worried as the river levels were below the green on the flood chart. Despite how it feels here, England hasn’t had that much rain recently so the river was as calm as a sleeping baby. In fact, after 4 weeks of canals, many of them only wide enough for one narrowboat to pass through, the Severn was like a six-lane motorway in New Zealand – we only passed one boat, going in the opposite direction, all the way to Worcester (it took us about 2 hours)! Barry was like a pig in shit at many points along the way, and took so many pictures of trees and river (very pretty though don’t ya think?) that his memory card was full when we arrived at the day’s destination!

A pretty bridge just outside of Stourport

The locks were also very different to those on the canals, and could fit half a dozen boats in at a time it seemed, but then most of the boats on the river are rather large. They're operated on a traffic light system and are 'manned' – what a boring job that must be especially on days when there is hardly any traffic. And what on earth do they do in the winter? Anyway, a lot less energy for me and my arthritic neck and sore knees – I need a new body, preferably a young, fit and agile one!

Plenty of room for our little Northern Pride

This is what serenity looks like...

Abandoned the life ring and even went down to short sleeves for part of the day - and driving was surprisingly a doddle!!

More serenity...

Who might live in a house like this...

More cruisers than narrowboats now


The Holt Fleet Lock - note the green traffic light on the right hand side

Thomas Telford's bridge at Holt Fleet

How the other half lives - probably MP's second homes paid for by the British public!!!!

Entering one of the locks

Homes (more MP's?!) by the river on the oustskirts of Worcerster

Worcester Bridge and the Cathedral in the background

We moored underneath the railway bridge in Worcester; thank goodness the trains stopped at about 11pm and didn’t start again until 0700.

Saturday 16 May

Today there is lots of activity on the river with boat races going on and speed boats speeding past. We are rocking around on our mooring but still holding fast. Barry has gone for a bike ride along the towpath in the wind and the rain, brrrr...

We'll be carrying on down the river later and plan to get to Upton-Upon-Severn this afternoon, a very picturesque village not far from Tewkesbury where we hope to get to on Sunday.

Someone asked me yesterday if I was bored yet - how on earth could anyone be bored doing what we're doing? We're loving it - you never know what the next day is going to bring. Apart from reading the Guardian every few days to catch up on the emerging govermental crisis (not sure why but it it fascinates me, who on earth do they think they are?!!) we busy ourselves reading, writing the blog, playing travel games like ludo and snakes and ladders, eating lovely food, drinking in the boat or the local pub, cruising and looking at the lovely scenery and chatting to local folks (apart from the occasional stuck up ones who don't talk to us!), entertaining visitors, and of course talking to each other and planning what we are doing over the coming days, weeks and months. No, we're definitely not bored...