Tuesday, 30 June 2015

Tewkesbury

28th June
We left Gloucester Docks in the rain, having to hold outside the lock with 2 other boats for long enough for the wind to blow us virtually from one side of the basin to the other. Through the lock and back onto the Severn up to Tewkesbury, where we turned off through the manned lock with a very efficient husband and wife team of lock keepers and onto the Avon, which was very full of moored boats. The lock keeper had suggested we liaise with a couple near the bridge who had decided to move as they were too long to secure their bow rope in the space. They were 54', we are 50'. We successfully swopped with them and moored tight to the bridge behind a hire boat, the occupies of which were enjoying a 2 week trip with a supply of 24 bottles of wine. Strange the things people tell you, but that sounds like a sensible amount to me.

The sun came out for a stroll into Tewkesbury. Another lovely town, lots of it very old but well preserved although the waterfront sadly a little dilapidated with a row of potentially good moorings back towards the water mill in a state of decay. The town is about to hold a medieval festival - the streets decorated with banners in readiness. These remind me of prop making days spent designing and stencilling such things, a job I mostly enjoyed when it went smoothly. These specimens were beautifully crafted by the people of Tewkesbury and must have taken many hours of painstaking work.

A lovely absurd moment whilst walking through Tewkesbury: we passed a couple and Pete said cheerily "did you find somewhere eventually?" - they looked politely confused, as he added "to moor?". It then dawned on us, that these were not the people we had swopped moorings with, although they looked just like them! They didn't in fact have a boat! There followed a rather silly embarrassed conversation about the whereabouts of the marina which they were heading for and their recommendation for the Wetherspoons pub and we parted ways!




the abbey
                                                         our mooring tight to the bridge

ripe for development

Tucked in by the bridge, all the other boats had gone before us in the morning







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