Left at 09:15
arrived at 12:30.
The weather is cool
today, we didn’t find a provisions store nearby, well tell a lie, Derek thought
he found one next to the river, it was polish.
There are a lot of foreign speaking couples round here, Derek thinks
they come here to work on the farms, fruit picking etc as there are a lot of
poly tunnels on the farmland hereabouts, near the river. Asparagus of “Gras” as they call it is a main
crop, they even have a festival for it, although I thought that it had a very
short season. Fruit is of course grown
round here as well. Off for 9:15 full of water again. The man from NB
Imagine (him and his wife and dog live here on the mooring above us) said to
beware at the next lock and use 2 gates as there is a pretruberance!! On one
side ? Passing permanent moorings and there was a marker on a gate 6 or 7 ft
above the height of the boat roof, it was the flood marker for 2007, the water
had reached the road above the mooring, phew.
Further along the river we slowed down, I realised that we were
approaching Hampton Ferry, the guy saw us coming, he got his passengers to the
other side in what looked like a metal bath tub type boat, it is worked by a
pulley rope and he let us pass by. There
was a static/cabin style park, one of the caravans had a conservatory on it with
a lovely landscaped garden. They were
raised up quite a way up from the river, hope they don’t end up floating if it
floods !! There was a big Marina it was
full of mostly cruisers only saw 3 NBs.
At Chadbury lock a cruiser Hope was coming into the lock. Derek got off
the boat and we did the lock for them.
They had been stopped yesterday as Mr Clarkson was doing his stunt
(transit van on a float) it will be episode 6 on the new show. No one was allowed through, they said he wasn’t
a very nice man, very bad tempered, so nothing new there then? I can see why they used this bit of the
river, the weir adds a touch of danger but it is very picturesque. At Fladbury lock, there were a pair of fussy
volunteer lockies, made us rope off and gave some chat to Derek, he’ll just
ignore them, its not really necessary as we were going down and don’t move
around the lock at all. They had been saying people had not been double roping,
using 1 gate etc. Guilty as charged but it is impossible to double rope when
there is only Derek still on the boat and I have to do the lock paddles and
gates and It is easier to only open one gate. We both did as we were told
however, nodded in agreement with them and enjoyed the ride. The river literally was long and winding, we
saw Mr Heron, he flew off in front of us, there doesn’t seem to be as many
water birds as I thought there would be, they do seem to congregrate in the
towns, suppose its for the food. The
fairies were landing on the water as we sailed through. A couple of NBs had passed us the last one was
called Atease ? the lady was anything but! She was polishing the front deck as
they went by ?? We passed through Wyre
Piddle? It had an island nearby called Tiddle Widdle Island and a Piddle Brook,
the kids would have thought that very amusing.
At Wyre Lock, it was a contrary one, it was diamond shaped and the weir
was on the right hand side just after the lock.
We left both gates open as it was odd to get into. There was a marina, caravan site and pubs by
the side of the river running passed the lock, it looked lovely. Arrived at Pershore, boats moored at the side
of the Recreation ground, there was a regatta, loads of kids in double canoes
racing up and down, they were a pleasure to see, they were all very excited and
having a wonderful time. The sun had
come out big time now, the church bells were ringing it was lovely. As we
moored up I chatted to some gongoozlers, they were English but had come from
Perth Australia where they now live, they had come for the ladies mums funeral,
she was 102 when she died so had had a good innings in anyones book. I got changed, Derek cooked bacon, eggs and
mushrooms, I fed the ducks and swans outside the window, Derek got TV so
everything was fine and dandy for the rest of the day. We had a rest, went up town and got
provisions from ASDA and had a lovely afternoon inside the boat because it was
red hot outside.
No comments:
Post a Comment