Back on the canals - Stratford and beyond

Well the floods subsided and we finally made it up the River Avon to Stratford and we are now working our way up the Stratford Canal towards Birmingham.

After several days marooned in Evesham we finally set off upstream on Sunday.

This was our flood mooring at Evesham.  Notice the long poles to allow mooring ropes to move up the poles as the waters rise.  In the picture we are just leaving Evesham.

After just a couple of locks it became apparent that the current was still very strong so we decided to moor just above Offenham Lock for the night.  This is a lovely spot with water and toilet emptying facilities.  Quite a few boats were there, like us waiting for the waters to go down.





On Monday we carried on a little further in slightly better conditions to Bidford on Avon.

Here is Helen on meadows by the medieval bridge at Bidford.  The navigation arch is not the big one in the middle but the one third from the right.

Bidford is a pretty place as this picture shows.















On Tuesday morning our friends Maurice and Carolyn came to join us for a couple of days and we cruised on in much better conditions up to Stratford where we arrived on Tuesday.

Here is Pas Mèche wriggling through the navigable arch at Bidford.  Quite tricky.  You can see what the floods did to the sign.

We've had some splendid skies lately.

Here Ian and Carolyn wait below Luddington Lock while Helen, Maurice and Victoria prepare the lock.

On Tuesday evening we moored in a pleasant spot just above the lock at Luddington and went for a walk through the fields by the river.

On Wednesday we finally made it to Stratford.  You can see Pas Mèche coming through the old Tramway Bridge with the Royal Shakespeare Theatre behind.

We first went up to the limit of navigation on the Avon a couple of miles above Stratford and then came back down to enter the basin at the bottom of the Stratford Canal.  Here you can see Pas Mèche going into the lock that takes you up to the Basin.

We had a couple of days in Stratford and managed to see Henry IV parts 1 and 2 while we were there.  Part 1 we saw with Maurice and Carolyn and Part 2 we saw on our own but surprisingly met a chap who Ian used to work with.

This is by way of being a catch up posting and, as the signal is pretty poor, I'll do another posting when we have better reception to bring you right up to date.  The next posting will include pictures of Stratford and our climb up the locks beyond.