Left at 09:20
arrived at 11:30.
Had a decent nights sleep,
Derek was up bright and early as usual, I managed to sleep in till 8 00. The sun is shining; no wind just a little
ripple in the trees. Today’s destination
is Sharpness to see the Severn estuary, apparently its very scenic. NB Morning Mist was up an at em, going back to
Glos. Then on to Stratford via the river Avon, basically back the way we had
come, they left before 8 30. The guy
from the broad beam moored behind us was taking a template of Derek’s fender
hook? Its made of wood and it hooks on
to the rail on the top of the boat with a fender on an adjustable rope fastened
to it. You can buy them made of plastic
but Derek’s is a much better one, it comes in handy when you are moored against
high walls or steps etc and just keeps the boat away from the side. 9 20 we are off, we passed NB Bramble (the
one with the Aussie couple) who we met along the way, gave them a wave as we
were passing, its getting very hot now.
Saw some interesting boats on the way, NB Rose was lovely and shiny,
with lace with roses on, in its porthole windows and lovely old fashioned lace
at the hatch holes. A NB Navigator with
a sign writers advert on it, then a sign for a Mr Selfe a friendly boat
examiner, it tickled me he does have a high opinion of Him Selfe. The canal is very wide and has views over
the hills, they still have a heat haze hanging over them at the moment. We passed some more of those little cottages
along the way, one was painted pale pink and up for sale again, we will have to
try and find out about them. There were
some nice moorings at Splatt. The canal is very wide and flat at the moment,
not a bit like yesterday, its quite busy, passing NBs going opposite way to us,
all enjoying the morning sun and
appearing to be going slower than usual.
There seemed to be a bit more wild life here, realised we were
approaching SlimBridge wild fowl centre, so that answered that. We have been there before and will take a
look again ready for when we come back with kids. Upper Purton looks a lovely place, there are
some fine properties along the canal a couple with a NB and a cruiser moored at
the bottom of the garden. We arrived at
the visitors moorings at 11 30, the Tug and Bancroft were moored there, it
seemed a bit of an anticlimax to me, a large expanse of mudflats and not much
else, we went a little further along but it was a dead end to the right,
permanent moorings and to the left was the entrance to the docks but we weren’t
going there. We turned round and moored
back at the visitors moorings. It was
really hot so we had a fry up for lunch, sat at the table, very civilised and
then had a little nap. Derek got fidgety
so we went for a walk about 2, it was by now scorching. We walked down to the permanent moorings,
there is a Rescue Centre beyond the moorings next to what Derek said would have
been a lock at some time. Out on the
Estuary there was a little inflatable and a man dressed in orange and with a
large net of somekind, we don’t know what he was trying to catch, but there wasn’t
much water there. We came back very hot
and foot sore, had a shandy and a beer, strawberries with yogurt and watched
the tennis, it was a fantastic match, I also put the nets up that I had washed
this morning and did a bit of sewing.
We had tea, Derek walked the dogs, I sorted planters round and got set
to watch the Murray semi final. There
are now lots of boats moored along the canal and a few cruisers pootaling
about, and it’s still very very warm.
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