Day : Monday
Date : 12 August 2019
Start : 1030
Finish : 1400 Tewkesbury
I have uploaded our proposed route to CanalPlanAC at https://canalplan.eu/journey/12117_OA8Kw159HU if anyone wants to see where we are likely to be. It gets updated with actual position each night.
Lovely quiet mooring last night, we didn't hear a sound. This morning was clear and bright but the river had come up overnight and was just in the orange. A hire boat came by at 1030 so we set off behind them with the plan of sharing locks. It wasn't long before we passed some posh moorings, maybe now he is saving up for a bigger boat?
We caught up with the hire boat at Nafford Lock where a boat at some time had come to grief on the weir.
As we arrived the hire boat was just on the lock landing and another boat was about to leave the lock coming up, so I reversed out of the way back upstream a bit. If you don't have a clear run coming out of the lock you can easily get trapped against the buoys across the weir. 2 boats have done it in the past 2 days. Once below the lock the water level was back in the green. This lock has a swing bridge across the chamber that you have to close when you leave, I can think of three like this.
Looking back as we went down the river I could see a tower on the hill top in the distance, I don't know where it is.
I use a navigation program called Waterways Routes, its downloaded onto my Ipad so doesn't need a data connection and tracks exactly where I am by satnav. One of the many useful points is that I can see where the weirs and locks are in relation to me as I approach them.
This is coming into Stensham lock. Below the lock is another swing bridge but this one is a bit larger and has a winch to open and close it, thankfully its left open
A little further down I looked round and this Buzzard was sitting in a willow looking back at me as I went by.
Looking up on the hill side we spotted what looked like yellow flags all over the field, as we got a bit closer we could see it was actually farm workers and from the smell it was probably onions they were harvesting.
We were going to stop at Twinning for lunch but there were already 2 boats on the mooring so we continued the short distance down to Tewkesbury and moored between King John's Bridge and the lock, these moorings are run by the River Avon Trust and cost £3 per night, it was lucky we arrived when we did as they are now full.
Today's Journey
10½ Miles 2 Locks in 3½ hours
1 comment:
The Tower is on Bredon Hill known as Parsons Folly
The tower was built in the mid-18th century for John Parsons, MP (1732–1805), squire of Kemerton Court and intended as a summer house, from which a more extensive view of the surrounding countryside could be seen
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