April 9

We have moored early on Saturday morning above George Billington Lock, a few miles north of Evesham and slap bang opposite the Fish and Anchor Inn (of which more later). And unless we are moved on, we'll stay here until Monday morning when we will cruise into Evesham and take on diesel and gas.  The trip down the Avon so far has been enjoyable but not overwhelming - as our first days on the Thames were. The river is obviously not as broad and impressive, though the countryside has been very pretty, especially during the few hours when the sun shone.  But a steady wind has not helped us and we were glad of the many moorings available in almost every lock cut - apart from a handful of holiday hires in the last day or so we have virtually had the Avon to ourselves.   The locks themselves are not easy - one-handed winding gear for paddles but heavy gates.  The great compensation is the safe hand-railed access provided. There is no need to inch your way over rain-greasy wooden gates here. 

 

Yesterday morning at Bidford we were able to moor alongside Kirstin, a time-share boat, long enough to take on water and chatted with Tim and Ann who were very helpful in pulling us in against the flow of the river. They were waiting for an engineer to come out to check their central heating and were in no hurry to go but we were surprised when they told us their hose would not reach the water point and the people in the boat behind them would not lend them their longer hose.  The vast majority of boaters we've met would have done what we did and let them use ours.  By lunchtime we were moored at Robert Aickman new lock and were pleased to see Kirstin come by with heating in proper working order again - much needed last night when it was cold enough for a ground frost. 

 

We are glad to be on the Avon, however, even though our stay at Bancroft Basin was almost unalloyed pleasure.  Our last visitors on Wednesday - good friends Linda Pelc and John Thorpe from Derbyshire - brought some excellent food and plenty of news from our old stamping ground and they stayed most of the day before setting off in the hope of finding a bell-ringing practice on their way home. They are both enthusiastic ringers and John taught both Linda and me back in Ashford in the Water. 

 

My comments about tourists in Stratford certainly rang a bell with Martin and Jenny Howes of Ashted and Wolverhampton Boat Club (who we hope to see in a month or two). Martin wrote: "Reading about the tourists in Bancroft Basin reminds me of the last time we were there. On a nice sunny Sunday morning, whilst Jen was sitting on the back deck painting a teapot, I was in the cabin engrossed in my allocated share of the rain forest (the Sunday Times), when I was surrounded by some six or seven Japanese and their cameras. Have you ever tried to explain in pidgeon english that this is not a public place?  We went up to THE Anchor at Easter just to make sure that Olive is keeping the 6X up to scratch. They were also serving a very pleasant Perry!" 

 

Also another missive from Sarah Levick on Arcadia, based at Streethay Wharf: "Well, you don't hang around do you? Just beaming in very quickly - must go to bed - to say that, thanks to your site, I have been reunited with a dear old pal that I lost touch with some years ago. So, first my uncle, now an old school mucker - you are quite a public service aren't you?  

 

"We had a week of cruising/working last week. It rained lots and Miffy had me running across fields in my PJs at 7.30 in the morning because she thought it would be extremely amusing to escape through the hedge and go and explore. Other than that, it was a delight.  Only went so far as Tixall but it was just nice to be out on the cut again. And we polished the boat up beautifully! Trust it to go and rain and spoil everything..."

April 11

Despite mild disappointment over the pub - we had moored in the lock cut and there was no way over to it unless we backed up and moored right by the weir - we had a good weekend and set off early this morning so we could have a couple of hours in Evesham before coming on to this LANT mooring at Craycombe Turn. Evesham lock was the first we've come across on the Avon that was manned and the lockie there was great - friendly and helpful with advice.  The Upper Avon was very attractive in places but so far the Lower Avon has been more impressive and we are looking forward to the next few days getting down to Tewkesbury.  Still very few boats around. 

 

Clearly our stay at Stratford struck chords with many of our regular and recently discovered readers because the emails keep coming.  This from old friends Mandy and Stuart Cooper who recently bought a share in the newly-built Strait & Narrow: "The place is of special interest to us as it was almost five years since Stuart went down on one knee and made an honest woman of me right at the foot of the swans wishing well (seen in the background of one of your pictures to the right of the Shakespeare Theatre). Also, we have a canal print in our dining room that we bought from the barge gallery. We really love the area and hope our boat will be moored in the vicinity in the future.  

"Stratford also brings back distant memories for Stuart.  As a teenager in 1972, he hired a boat with friends and remembers how overgrown the Stratford and Oxford canals were then - almost unnavigable in places. He especially remembers the sheer numbers of tourists gathered around the lock leading from the basin onto the river Avon as being quite daunting to amateurs and had the embarrassment of going aground straight after coming out of the lock (the river must have been quite low that day!) - cameras clicking merrily at their misfortune."  The cameras were still there over Easter weekend and we were glad we were not leaving through the lock until mid-week. 

Another came from Gavin Parkes (web site www.nb-berenice.co.uk) who called out when he and his family passed us on their narrowboat Berenice at Rowington on Easter weekend. "It was good to see you - I'd read about Snecklifter (and sampled it incidently) during the winter months. I think you were on the Ashby - we were up there late October. Reading about your adventures certainly conjure up warming thoughts whilst passing the lunchtime away stuck in an office in December. 

"After we passed you we also headed down the Stratford to Bancroft Basin. We arrived on Easter Monday and managed to get a pontoon. Luckily we arrived around lunchtime - by 2.00pm there was no space whatsoever in the basin. It was also very busy on Monday, the weather was good, lots of street artists and kids stuff too. We shared a pontoon with Craig and Janet on Rainbow Lorikeet and found them an extremely interesting couple.  First time we've done the Stratford canal and the best scenery I've seen on any canal, even equal to Llangollen. However, the locks are a different story! We didn't mind the frequency because we had a good crew, We also found that rather than jumping on the boat between locks we walked it - and ended up walking most of the length of the canal. The thing that was worst was the width of the chambers and dodgy gates. We've only got slim fenders but we struggled to leave a few chambers. I recall the lock right next to the M40 crossing - the bottom gate was so twisted we could hardly get in going back up. The entrance was reduced by nearly a foot. 

"Anyway, back to reality at work in Basingstoke. We've got to go up to Braunston marina in the next couple of weeks. I've got plenty of external painting to do and the grouting in the shower is giving up the ghost, so I'll paint, Julia can grout and the kids can cause mayhem! We'll probably get out for May Day Bank Holiday - perhaps up the North Oxford. Then at Whitsun I have a week off so we're heading down the South Oxford and onto the Thames as far as Pangbourne. We won't have far to go home and the in-laws are taking the boat back to Braunston for us over the following week. Then after that the next biggy will be East Midlands Ring in August."

April 13

Another idyllic LANT mooring at Comberton Quay yesterday gave us the chance to walk the dogs up to the village which lies at the foot of Bredon Hill, celebrated so memorably by A E Houseman. Much though I love the poem we shirked the hour-long climb to the top from which another boater assured us we could clearly see Houseman's "coloured counties."  This morning we set off early again and arrived at Avon lock in Tewkesbury (Latest pictures) where we will stay on paid moorings (£3 a night) until Friday.  If the weather is still favourable we will go down on to the Severn as soon as the lockie opens up - another very helpful chap who says he cannot remember so few boats on the river this far into April.  For us it's been excellent.  No more than a handful of boats have passed us on the move since we left Stratford seven days ago. Instead the river has grown wider and more open and the birdlife has increased as we cruised south - herons, dozens of swans, dippers and kingfisher, and today at least eight or 10 curlews and half a dozen redshanks sighted. 

 

And to cap it all we discovered the Berkeley Arms in well-pubbed Tewkesbury selling Wadworth 6X.  My cup (or rather beermug) runneth over.

April 15

Despite the attractions of the Berkeley Arms and a cold overcast morning we left Tewkesbury as soon as the lockie began work at Avon lock today and by 9.30 we had debouched on to the Severn (a great word "debouched" because it sums up the steersman's feelings when the boat sweeps out into midstream).  The river had apparently risen by about three inches over the last few days and we were considerably slower travelling against the flow than we had been "flying" down the Avon.  Within an hour and three quarters, however, we had tied up on the pontoons at Upton, chatting with friendly folk aboard Lucy Crown (didn't get their names) and here we'll stay now until Sunday when Roger Morgan of Ballard is driving over to see us. The lockie at Tewkesbury had warned us that there were 16 pubs in Upton but there's no way we'll be able to confirm that in three days. 

 

Meanwhile we have now had confirmation from Rose Philpott - one of our most faithful email correspondents - that she and her husband Baz have at last bought they own narrowboat, Tickly Two. You can share her understandable delight on Rose Afloat.

April 18

The four hours it took to cruise from Upton to Worcester this morning were almost entirely boring - except for negotiating Diglis lock which had a difficult temporary mooring at the bottom of a grassy bank that Liz had difficulty climbing up.  The river itself was not uninteresting, with enough of a flow after last night's rain to reduce our average speed to just under three miles an hour, but our views of the countryside were reduced to almost nothing by high banks and trees.  We were quite relieved to pull in close to the racecourse at Worcester just before midday, with another similar trip facing us tomorrow en route for Stourport. 

 

Still we had an excellent weekend at Upton to look back on, topped off by a visit to Roger and Sue Morgan's new home at Bishopswood (above), about 10 minutes by car from Ross-on-After picking us up from the boat in the morning they treated us to a superb roast lamb and vegetables lunch that Sue had cooked, followed by a mouth-watering apple crumble cooked by Roger using apples picked from his own trees. We got back to Snecklifter about 4 pm and spent the next couple of hours contentedly sleeping it off.  Wye.  Their lovely cottage actually looks down on the Wye - 150 feet down - over sloping gardens and woods that comprise their nine-acre "domain."

 

 

After picking us up from the boat in the morning they treated us to a superb roast lamb and vegetables lunch that Sue had cooked, followed by a mouth-watering apple crumble cooked by Roger using apples picked from his own trees. We got back to Snecklifter about 4 pm and spent the next couple of hours contentedly sleeping it off. 

 

Another email has reached us from Norman Weston in Andalucia with an unhappy story about a recent canal holiday - most people write to tell us how much they enjoyed their narrowboat adventures.  Norman and his wife Diana hired a boat at Preston Brook for a weekend, were very unhappy with its condition, moored near a pub and were set adrift, had to buy a couple of spikes to replace those that had been stolen and found their complaints shrugged off when they returned the boat.  Fortunately both have happy memories of other canal holidays so their experience has not deterred them from boating - they've bought a share in a new 58-footer due to be launched in May with a slot booked for the last two weeks in June when they plan to do the Cheshire Ring anti-clockwise.  The full story of their "problem" weekend can be found on Norman's weblog - http://normsdiary.blogspot.com/

April 20

Following reports of two days of comparatively boring travel on the Severn, I can at last talk about thrills, excitement and danger - well, at least excitement.  We left Worcester early yesterday morning and cruised through increasingly attractive countryside to Hampstall Inn where we moored on a low wooden landing stage. The pub had recently been taken over by a young woman, helped out by her mother and father, and it was warm and welcoming with excellent Spitfire on draught.  So we arranged to stay the night with a promise to return that evening for another pint and a bar meal (Liz even left our copy of Nicholson's there, though not intentionally and not discovered until later). 

 

We returned to the boat, ate a leisurely sandwich or two and at about 2pm I was about to get my head down for half an hour when I luckily stuck it out of the side hatch to investigate some noises off. The landing stage at the front of the boat was under two or three inches of water.  We'd noticed the river had been running faster, of course, but not realised how quickly it was rising.  Within five minutes I had cast off the lines and we were on our way to Stourport, arriving about an hour later with the intention of mooring on the pontoon below the canal locks. We had left just in time - as we left Lincomb lock the keeper said he was closing in 15 minutes and would stay closed for 24 hours because the river was in flood.  

 

We had scarcely settled down on the pontoon when the basin officer arrived to ask us and other boats to move up through the two sets of staircase locks into the safety of the basin before they closed the locks and access to the river ... so we did!  We tied up about 4pm as the rain started to lash down.  Just in time again. 

 

But we've had a very quiet night and this morning we'll have a quick look at Stourport before watering and then cruising up the Staffs and Worcs to get through Kidderminster and mooring for the night. After that we intend to inch our way very slowly towards the Shroppie.  We are well ahead of any notional timetable we may have had in the backs of our minds.

April 22

A slightly later start on Wednesday morning made a change of plan "advisable" and by lunchtime we had moored out in the countryside between Stourport and Kidderminster.  Yesterday we continued into Kidderminster, moored next to Tesco for some heavy shopping (tins and dog food), before cruising a couple of locks to this lovely, almost idyllic spot above Wolverley Court Lock and just a five minute walk from the official Wolverley moorings next to the Lock Inn (Banks bitter and friendly landlord and landlady).  The weather is sunny, we've already done a lot of cleaning and paint preparation work outside, and we are in no immediate hurry to reach the Shroppie.  We will stay here for the weekend and then explore the rest of the route very slowly - everyone says how beautiful the countryside is from here to the edge of Wolverhampton. 

 

Mind you, we have been pleasantly surprised by Kidderminster.  The reason I put the quotation marks around advisable was that we had heard so many horror stories and warnings about staying anywhere near the town.  Of course, we didn't stay overnight. But in the daylight it seemed extremely friendly, with most passers-by keen to say hello and sometimes stop to chat, and the canalside architecture was fascinating with its mixture of old traditional buildings "tarted-up" or ripe for tarting up and entirely new developments around the shopping precincts. 

 

Perhaps we've just been in a better frame of mind.  We love exploring rivers (the Thames above all) but it was a relief and a pleasure to return to canals and the greater concentration of getting the boat round tight bends and through narrow bridge holes.  Our countryside stop on Wednesday night certainly brightened us when we looked out of the side hatch and saw three Great Spotted Woodpeckers chasing and scrapping through the bare trees across the canal.  They kept us company most of the afternoon. 

 

We've also been cheered by more emails, especially one from Barry Connor, who we had met a few times when he walked his dog on the towpath at Dadlington Bridge on the Ashby - we had moored there for two or three days on at least three or four occasions last winter. He wrote: "Came across your web site on a rainy afternoon here in Dadlington and recognised you from our short chats.  I thought I would let you know that next time you are up here you will find that you have a new neighbour, Bacarelle. We finally took delivery of her from Ashby Boatbuilders a fortnight ago and she now occupies the historic wharf where narrowboat Billie resided for so many years.  Bacarelle's maiden voyage up and down the Ashby has already passed but we are planning a 'launch' barbie in due course when the weather bucks up, so if you are about at that time you are welcome to cross bridge 30 and enjoy a beer, banger and chinwag."  Over the next six months of travelling I'm going to regret not being able to take advantage of what would otherwise have been an irresistible offer. 

 

We've also heard from Audrone Berzanskas who first emailed us from her home in Australia in early March, and she confirms she and her husband Richard have ordered a 60ft semi-trad narrow boat from Heron. She writes: "Pendragon will be ready in about six months with a very strong engine so that we can traverse estuarine waters and cross the channel. Well you have guessed it : we have been watching too much of Chris Coburn and his boat Progress.  All we have to do now is sell our home!  Here is a little déjà vu for you – 'You're turning your backs on security' from our Melbourne friends, but not so from our Hobart friends (where we lived for some time). There they expect it from us. My answer is we are living life!  On that note I shall bid you a fond Iki!  (Short for ikipasimatymo - till we meet again, which is Lithuanian of course.)" 

 

And finally I have posted another picture on Sarah Levick's News from Arcadia - showing the latest addition to her "family", Miffy, relaxing with her other greyhounds. 

 

Iki.

April 25

It's been a relaxed weekend - most of it in sunshine - with a very welcome visit from daughter-in-law Sharon who drove over from London and arrived in time for coffee, a drink at the Queen's Head, lunch on board and then a leisurely trawl through her excellent photographs taken on a three-week visit to Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.  We switched from the Lock Inn (which we liked very much) only because a passing boater had told us that the QH had draught Sneck Lifter as a guest beer - and it was delicious.  An email from Derek and Di Buckley from Telford had already told us that it is also on sale at the Hartley, Wheaton Aston, but at the rate we are moving we are unlikely to reach it before it is replaced. 

 

This morning, for instance, we left Wolverley at 8 am and by just after 9.30 were moored for the rest of the day just below Whittington lock - an idyllic spot that is within easy walking distance of Kinver.  Liz walked to the village for fresh bread and meat and confirmed that we had chosen the best mooring in the area. 

 

Yesterday we had an email from old friends at Barton Turns marina - Jenny and Tony Miller of Jenny Rose, suggesting that earlier emails must have gone missing because we had not replied.  I trawled through 800 plus messages in my old, abandoned, inbox and there they were, as well as one from Joseph and Janet Cresswell of Barleyfirth.  I can only apologise to them and any others who wrote to an out of date address and urge anyone who fails to get a response within a week or so to try again through the link on the home page of this website.

April 30

I've been a little slow updating these pages - not because there has been nothing to say but because we've had such a lazy, laid-back time.  We had three days at Whittington, cleaning the boat and re-blacking the port-side bottom from waterline to rubbing strake.  Then we came up through two locks to Stewpony Wharf but stayed only an hour before finding an isolated mooring about a mile further on.  Yesterday we cruised another half a mile to a BW five-day mooring next to the site of the old Gothersley Roundhouse (now a low near-circle of bricks with a gap that allows walkers to sit inside on a wooden bench).  It's shaded by trees without feeling too shut in, there's a woodpecker active somewhere near and other birds include tree creepers. So we've decided it's an excellent place to spend the Bank Holiday weekend, letting more dedicated boaters get on with it. We then have the four or five days to reach Wolverhampton Boat Club on the Shroppie where we hope to spend next weekend with Martin and Jenny Howes on Ashted. 

 

 

 

 

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