Gloucester & Sharpness Canal

We'd planned to stay in Gloucester and explore the city, but the weather was so nice we decided to pop down the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal and see what was at the end.  It was a good decision as it's a beautiful canal. Unfortunately we could only stay one night but there's so much to see and do that we've already decided we'll have to pay a return visit next year and maybe stay for a few weeks.

There are 13 swing/lift bridges on the canal, all of which are operated for you by very pleasant C&RT staff.

The canal was originally built to take large ships, bringing cargo from the port at Sharpness in the Bristol Channel to Gloucester Docks.  Because their passage was dependant on accessing the tidal lock at Sharpness the bridges had to be manned day and night and the bridge-keepers lived in these small cottages beside the bridges.  They're unique to the G & S canal and all feature classical facades with fluted Doric columns. These days they're all privately owned and almost half of them were for sale.

We moored at the end of the canal, with good views over the Severn estuary towards the Forest of Dean.

The River Severn has the second biggest tidal range in the world and it certainly comes in quickly.  We went for a wander around and in the space of half an hour the sand banks were covered.  The currents are fierce and there were lots of whirlpools too.

This is the old tidal lock at the end of the canal which is no longer used.

I saw my ideal boat in Gloucester Docks and Roger found his while we were walking round Sharpness Docks.  It even has it's own heli pad but we couldn't decide if it was still being fitted out or was in the process of being dismantled. Either way it looked like it needed a lot of T.L.C.

Just up from our mooring was the remains of an old railway bridge which used to cross the River Severn.

The tower on the left was the pivot for the section of railway over the canal which had to be moved to let large ships past.

 Yesterday we headed back to Gloucester but stopped at The Tudor Arms pub for a pint at lunchtime.  This pub has been awarded CAMRA's Gloucester Country Pub of the Year award for the 6th year running so we just had to stop and see why. The beer was excellent, the menu fairly basic but the food looked good and they had a poster in the bar that made me smile.

We set off again, stopping twice en-route.  The first time was to get a pump-out at the day-boat hire/cafe just through Patch Swing Bridge.  It was only £10 (BW charge £14.75) with use of the pump for as long as you need and a good rinse out too.

The second stop was at the oil depot between Fretherne Bridge and Sandfield Bridge.  They sell red diesel at 85p/l domestic rate with any split, direct from the depot. In winter they also sell solid fuel.

We just made it back to Gloucester Docks with 5 minutes to spare before Llanthony Bridge closed for the night.  The docks were very quiet with only 3 other narrowboats on the moorings.  We left at 12.00 today, having been advised by the lock keeper to wait for the low tide on the River Severn to make it easier getting out of the lock. The River Severn is quite boring really, although going up-stream there seems to be a bit more of a view than going down-stream. It's definitely just a transit river, I wouldn't want to spend any time here.

At Upper Lode Lock we shared with a huge crane. They were repairing one of the paddles in the lock but had had to abandon work for the day due to high water levels. The weir beside the lock was almost level but we didn't really notice much of an increase in current.

We're now moored back in Upton on Severn, double breasted up on the floating pontoon.  We didn't fancy mooring on the steps under The Plough pub as the water level is rising quite rapidly at the moment, I suppose that's due to all the rain they've been having in Wales for the past few days.  I just hope it doesn't go up too much overnight as we really need to carry on again tomorrow. We have to get back to Birmingham by next Thursday.

Back to Upton on Severn

Getting our mail is one of the hardest things about living on the boat. We get all the important stuff like bank statements etc. on-line or by email but some companies still insist on using snail mail, so every couple of months one of my friends fills a Jiffy bag and sends it on to us. We use the Post Restante system operated by the post office but you'd be amazed at how many large post offices we've been to where the staff have no idea what Post Restante is.  Thankfully the post office in Upton on Severn is fully clued up and when we went to collect our mail today the girl told us they have several Post Restante clients at the moment and had it all filed away in the back office. Very efficient!

We'd planned to go down river to Gloucester and just call in at Upton on the way to pick up the post, but that's all changed. No sooner had we pulled up on the pontoon than another narrowboat breasted up with us and then we were surrounded by plastic.  It's the Upton Music Festival this weekend. At  over £50 each for the weekend we'd decided it was too expensive and would give it a miss, but we've been reliably informed that we'll hear all the music from our moorings so have decided to stay here for a couple of nights.

The festival has been set up on the field opposite our moorings. We'll go over tomorrow and check it out properly but for tonight there's live music on in most of the pubs along the waterfront so we'll have a wander around after dinner, providing the rain holds off that is.

Drama in Worcester

We had a touch of drama this morning.  Roger was eating his breakfast and looking out of the side hatch when a small film crew arrived on the bridge above our mooring.

 The actress was supposed to be quite distressed

and attempt to throw herself off the bridge into the river

The producer/camera man filmed it all from just behind our boat

Now while all this was going on, people were still walking to and fro across the bridge.  I was amazed that only one woman stopped and tried to help/stop her jumping off the bridge.  Everyone else just walked straight past!  She took some reassuring that it it was only a film and was quite shocked and upset. It would have made more sense if the film crew had stopped people crossing the bridge while they were filming.

After lunch we set off again downstream.  The river attracts a different sort of boat and there were lots of "gin palaces" moored everywhere.

Some of them are huge. This shows the scale as the narrowboat was a 57ft hire boat.

We enjoyed our cruise down to Upton on Severn although in places the banks are so high you can't actually see much other than trees.

When we arrived at Upton on Severn there was only one mooring spot left, tucked in against the bank but still on a floating pontoon.  Can you see how high the mooring poles are?

Upton on Severn has the dubious reputation of being the most flooded town in the UK.  It's been flooded 70 times in 40 years.  At least I'll sleep happy tonight knowing that if it floods tonight we have another 20ft. to go up.

So many beers, so little time

We had a great time at the beer festival.  There were 254 different beers listed in the programme PLUS well over a 150 ciders and perrys.  Not all were available last night as some have been reserved for Friday and Saturday to make sure they don't run out.

Was this one brewed specifically with Paul & Lynne in mind?  It's described as a "fine, full bodied, golden ale with a refreshing hoppy palate".  I didn't try it myself, being a fan of the darker stouts and porters, but it was certainly going down well.

Worcester Beer Festival is especially good, as it's not all just about the beer.  The two bands we watched were pretty good too.

The £10 entrance fee gets you a commemorative glass, either a half or a pint size, plus £5 of beer tokens, plus the live bands.  Even though there's so many beers we only tried 5 each and the good thing is that you can try a sample before you buy so you can be quite selective.  I made a real mistake with one beer though. It was a Chocolate Orange Stout by Amber Ales from Derbyshire and while the sample tasted good I really didn't enjoy the half pint I bought and ended up throwing it away.  There was an overpowering after-taste of vanilla which I hadn't noticed in the sample and as I'm not fond of vanilla at the best of times, I certainly didn't enjoy it in my beer.

With all the other beers still to try, the music and the general ambiance, we had such a good time that we're going back again tonight.  Today, we're going to have a wander around Worcester centre.

Worcester

After a quick trip into Droitwich Spa this morning, we set off down to Worcester.

This unusual flower trough was on the balcony of the Navigation Pub.

We'd been warned that the double locks on this stretch of canal were very hard to work, but we found them to be no worse than most other double locks.   The only problems, if you can call them problems, were the amount of duck weed and reeds in the canal.  In places the water was like thick pea soup and at times the reeds encroached so far into the canal that there was only a boat's width clear down the centre.

The last lock on the Droitwich Canal was overflowing.

As instructed, we phoned ahead to the lock keeper

and dug out the life jackets.

By the time we got to the lock, it was set for us.  River locks are huge and, thankfully, fully automated.  I wouldn't fancy trying to push one of those gates open!

We're now moored in Worcester, beside the canoe club.

It's Worcester Beerfest  for the next 3 days.  This photo gives you some idea of the scale of it, however I couldn't fit it all in one shot.  We're going tonight after dinner so I'll tell you about it tomorrow.

Worcester

Last night we went to the “Open Mic Night” at the King’s Head pub, just above the moorings in Upton. The standard of  entertainment was superb and I’d say it’s probably the best open mic we’ve been to so far.

The other day I bought a load of apricots from Upton market but they were too dry to eat raw so this morning I bottled them in Amaretto syrup to have later in the year.

We carried on up river to Worcester, passing through the huge Digliss Lock. Seeing the size of those gates made me REALLY glad the lock’s automated!

approaching Digliss Lock, we need to use r.h.s. "small lock"

boat ready to come out

I have to say that the moorings aren’t very nice in Worcester, especially s they charge £3.50 for the privilege. There are lots of over-hanging trees and submerged obstructions so we carried on a bit and found a spot beside Worcester Race Course. I’m sure Roger secretly planned on mooring here because as soon as we’d moored up I found out we're right beside the venue for Worcester Beer Festival! As soon as I’ve up-loaded this blog guess where we’re going? I’ll let you know tomorrow how it was.

Upton on Severn

Today we set off onto the River Severn and cruised to Upton on Severn where we managed to squeeze into the last vacant mooring, just by the bridge.

I’d read about a local vineyard on the internet so we set off to walk the mile and a bit to find it.

The owner was very friendly and gave us a free wine tasting. I must admit I didn’t expect it to be any good, well you just don’t associate England with wine production do you, but I was pleasantly surprised. The Elgar dry white was delicious and we bought 2 bottles, along with a bottle of the award winning “methode champagnoise” Elgar Sparking. This has been hidden away until our daughter’s visit in Liverpool. If you’re ever passing this way I highly recommend a visit. You can find out more about Tiltridge Vineyard HERE

Near the vineyard there was a fruit farm where you could pick your own strawberries, raspberries, plums and apples. They also had pick your own eggs but I gave this a miss. The last time I went egg collecting I ended up with one sat on my head my to the amusement of the rest of the family!

The farm also had a herd of Tamworth pigs routing around in a small orchard. They seemed to be very partial to the apples.

On the way back we called into the local hardware shop searching for “No More Spiders” spray. We’ve looked everywhere since we were moored at Barton and got invaded by the 8 legged beasties but to no avail. I’d just about resigned myself  to having to order it online when lo and behold there it was! Wonderful. I just hope it works as well as I’ve been led to believe.