Wildlife on the Severn

Sunday 9^th August; Pitchcroft to Tewkesbury

The morning was blessedly cool after a quiet night.  Meg took Dave up onto the racecourse to get her run in early, then after breakfast she came with me to get the Sunday paper from the little garage on the way up to town.  As she’d found a bit of a tennis ball en route we had to go part-way along the racecourse as well, her reasoning being that she would be stuck on the boat till we got to Tewkesbury.  It was cool enough for us to wear jumpers at 9.30 as we left, passing the swan sanctuary where what the rats hadn't cleared overnight was being cleared along with swan poo.

The river was very quiet as it was still early.  We were through Diglis by 10, their second boat of the day, and off on the long journey to Tewkesbury.   Some of the houses won’t have trouble with floods, but they do have some difficult gardening conditions.

The river was soon busy with all types of craft from gin palaces through widebeams and narrowboats to little day-boats and ribs.  The lovely Bellus Deus had a good spot at Upton for lunch.  They had been moored further along from us last night and must have been the first boat through Diglis.

No lunch stop for us – a small day-boat was smack in the middle of the space left the other side of the bridge, so lunch on the move today.  The Search and Rescue crews had all been out this morning, whether on a training mission or for real we don’t know, but it did look as though one of them had suffered engine failure.

 

The gravel boats lay idle of course, as it is Sunday.  We have watched them working on previous trips.

The journey was not as … uninteresting as it can be.  This was partly because of the large numbers of other boats, but mostly because we saw cormorants, several kingfishers and a small flock of sandpipers, and best of all, though sadly there wasn’t time for a photo, an otter crossed the river behind us.  Dave also had a good view of a barbel close to the boat.  We arrived below Tewkesbury lock during the lunch hour, and tied up for a short wait.  The lock usage procedures have changed because of Covid.

Dave had discovered the licence change before we left home, and we already had one - you can no longer buy one at the lock as was usual pre-Covid.  You must stay on your boat, and the gate onto the lock surround is locked, at least until the lockie is on duty.  And it’s all being run by volunteers, as the usual lockie’s wife has COPD and the lock cottage has been fenced off with the wire fencing you see round construction sites.  You don’t throw your rope up either;the grapple is lowered for you to hook your rope onto; the rope is looped round a post and handed back to you. But we were given one of their maps and a very useful leaflet listing all the water-points, sanitary stations and flood-safe moorings.  We moored just past the water point, enjoying a bit of shade although we had to use centre and stern ropes only, on innies, as the other mooring staples were broken.

We had to buy milk, so to give Meg a bit of exercise we both walked up to the Tesco.  As we returned, Bellus Deus was waiting for the lock, with two widebeams following.  We watched from near the top gate as she came out – at (probably) 70’, the turn up-river was a delicate operation requiring slow speed and careful use of the bow thrusters.  Beautifully executed, much more impressive than the widebeams which followed.  They all moor at the marina so clearly have had plenty of practice!  The lock was busy for the rest of the afternoon with a beautiful slipper-launch passing by at one point.  In the evening, once it had cooled down, we walked along to the footbridge to the meadows of Severn Ham.  Moored along the weir stream was David Hutchings, one of the Avon Navigation Trust’s work boats.

We had a wonderful walk on Severn Ham, and as dusk began to fall we started to make our way back with the Abbey clock chiming the quarters – and eventually 9 o’clock – as we strolled home.  It was still hot enough for shorts and t-shirts and we had to open up everything that could be opened to cool the boat down again.  That may have included a can or two.

Tewkesbury Abbey across the meadows.

 2 locks both operated by lockies, 17 miles, 4½ hours travelling.