Down the Severn and back again!!

We're moored on a pontoon this afternoon which does not allow us to leave.  Though we are allowed to moor here, the land to which the pontoon is attached is private and a locked gate means we are confined to the boat and the mooring - hence doing another update to the blog so soon after the last one. This sounds a bit miserable but it is a delightful mooring on the River Severn: peaceful and far, far away from the madding crowd.

The last posting was at Stourport and we left there yesterday.  Two narrow staircases each of two locks lead down from the upper basin where we were moored out onto the River Severn.

Before we set off we had a visit from a family of swans who seem to regard the basin as their own.  Seven cygnets is a pretty big brood and they look as if they might well reach adulthood.

It is not an obvious route through the upper basins so this signpost is useful to those who have not been here before.

Here is Leo coming out of the bottom lock of the upper staircase.

I'm not sure why but the line of the upper staircase does not align with that of the lower staircase.  You can see that Leo, coming out of the upper staircase, is heading for the dry dock and not the open top lock of the lower staircase.  This makes it a tricky manoeuvre but fortunately the wind was not too strong.

Success.  Here is Leo coming into the lower staircase.

And here we are ready to come out of the lower staircase onto the River Severn.  Helen is putting the paddles back down before we go, though we were able to leave the gates open as another boat was waiting on the river to come up.

Just as we were about to go, a huge tree floated past.  Best to wait I thought.













There is an indicator board below the lock that shows the depth of water and the advisability of boating on the river.  Green indicates all is well, amber that one should be aware of faster flowing water and red that one should think again and stay off the river.  When we left Stourport it seemed to be just on green but at the lower locks it was clearly amber.  Much of the way we were using quite low revs but travelling at close to 6 mph which is pretty fast for a narrowboat.

After weeks of only using narrow locks, the Severn locks come as a bit of surprise.  Here is Leo looking a bit lost in Lincomb Lock.  Fortunately there is a lockkeeper at every Severn lock.

We liked the look of this cottage last time we came down here, but the more modern house behind has been built since our last visit two years ago.

Here is the view looking back at Holt Bridge and Lock after we had gone through.

Half a mile before the last lock before Worcester is Hawford Junction where the Droitwich Barge Canal leaves the River.  Behind and to the left of the little boat you can just make out the lock gates.  This is where we intend to go next.

Coming to Bevere Lock there are some hazards marked by these stout poles.  By the time we got here there was quite a wind and the water flow was faster.  We were surprised as we came to the lock to find a hire boat apparently trying to turn round.  In fact this wasn't deliberate but a result of strong gusts of wind.  We saw them later and they were fine.

Here is the view as we left Bevere Lock.  The gates are just closing behind us.

Here we are passing the rowing club on the way into Worcester.  There are in fact three bridges in the picture.  First comes the Sabrina footbridge, a suspension bridge.  Next is the railway bridge and finally the arches of the road bridge.

Worcester Cathedral dominates the skyline as we approached the road bridge.  We made for the centre arch and used some extra throttle to shoot through.

The best view of the Cathedral is undoubtedly from the River.  On the town side it is hemmed in by other buildings and difficult to appreciate properly.

We cruised down to Diglis locks where the Worcester and Birmingham Canal joins the River.  We had intended to moor on a pontoon there but unfortunately it was full.  So we turned and came back upriver and moored here by the railway bridge.  Coming upstream we were making 3.5 mph compared with 6 mph downstream even at 1700 rpm.




We had a walk round the city in the afternoon and visited some parts we hadn't seen before.

We walked over the Sabrina Bridge.  Sabrina is the subject of a story as the daughter of the king of England and was drowned in the River.  The last narrowboat in the line is Leo.

The Sabrina footbridge links parts of the University.  The padlocks testify to romances between the students!

We walked through Cripplegate Park, a lovely open space with lots of activities for local folk.  Helen is next to a giant poppy which commemorates the Worcester Regiment.

This fine fountain dates from the late 19th century and was restored to full working order in 2004.  Look at the effect of the wind on the water.


















This morning it was raining quite hard.  With other boaters, the feeling being on a river in heavy rain is "How do we get off the river in case it rises rapidly?".  Some boats went down to the floating pontoon as boats from there had passed us, so there were likely to be spaces.  We decided to head for the Droitwich Canal.  So we've come upstream about 3 miles and back through Bevere Lock.

We left in heavy rain as this picture shows.  The white rope on the roof shows how we rig the anchor on rivers - the anchor lives at the stern but we rig it so that it is tied onto the boat at the bow.  The idea is that we can throw it in from the back but finish up moored from the front.  We've never had occasion yet to test this though.

We've moored tonight on a floating pontoon close to the entrance lock to the Droitwich Barge Canal at Hawford Junction.  Situated on the bend of the River this gives us fine views of boats coming from either direction.  We've even seen the sun from time to time.

Here are two boats coming down the Hawford Lock.














The river level has gone up about 3 inches since we arrived but hopefully we can manage to cross to the other pontoon tomorrow morning to go up the lock.  And then we're off the river and heading to Droitwich up the 8 wide locks.  We are promised some hotter weather by the weekend which would be nice.