Category: Holiday 2020

Holiday 2020 – Day 13

Here is the map of the day – 20 miles.

We travelled from Upton upon Servern down the river Servern and then took the Junction to Tewkesbury, the river was flowing so fast we almost missed it. We are now on the river Avon. The lock keep greeted us over a tannoy asking if we had a river Avon license – lucky we did so he let us in!

The lock keeper informed us the river was blocked at two places due to fallen trees – forever the optimist we continued, having already subscribed to the Avon Trust notices we knew about of of these already we felt sure it would be cleared.

Once on the river Avon we managed to get on to a pump out and water point as we had too much on one and not enough of the other!

We now continued our travels and the River Avon has some stunning views.

We were aiming for Pershore as the Lock Keeper had told us there were good moorings. When we arrived we checked the status of the trees. Unfortunately there is still one blocking the river so we may be here for a while!

Holiday 2020 – Day 12

No map today because there are very high winds so we are staying put.

Here is our overnight spot

Overnight the water had risen over 4 inches.

The little town we stayed at was Upton upon Severn. Its a really old town. We had a curry on the first night and a pizza for lunch the next day. Wendy though the gluten free base was the best she had ever tasted.

Here are some pictures of the town

The next morning we prepared to go. There were some heavy barges transporting material down stream, look at the difference between the full and empty one

Holiday 2020 – Day 11

Here is the map of the day

We were very excited at the start of the day as some new crew joined us for the day

At the start of the day we hit a bit of a traffic jam, someone had manage to drain all the water! Canal and river trust to the rescue! Here is us queuing under the M5!

Today we completed the Worcester and Birmingham canal and joined the mighty river Severn, suddenly our canal boat seems very small.

We left the canal and are heading towards Tewkesbury, the river is fairly fast flowing so we archived a lot of distance in a short time cruising at a massive 6 mph, nearly twice our normal speed.

We have moored overnight at Upton upon Severn and managed to grab a curry as we said goodbye to Lu and Teresa.

As were are now on the Severn we are alongside some rather larger vessels than we are used to.

Here are some other images of the day

Holiday 2020 – Day 10

Here is the map of the day

A slow amble down the Birmingham and Worcester canal, we are getting near the end now where we will join the River Seven.

More lock for poor Wendy today although just the 11 which is a great many less than the day before!

Here are a few pictures from the day

And tonight we are moored outside a nice looking pub, so will be testing that out shortly 🙂

Holiday 2020 – Day 9

Here is the map of the day

An early start for us at 8:30, then an hour cruise before the 1st lock. Yes another day of locking, this time the longest lock flight in the UK.

That is the picture of the Tardebigge lock flight, 30 locks in just over two miles.

About 1/3 of the way down a boater had not closed the lock paddles, this was the result

Wendy has earnt another meal out tonight! lucky there is a nice looking pub

Not sure we will get to go in the Tee Pee!.

Here are a couple of other pictures from the day, half way down the flight we were lucky enough to be helped along by two Canal and River trust volunteers.

And here is our spot for tonight

Holiday 2020 – Day 8

Here is the map of the day

After out overnight stop and visit to Mortons Bar we thought about staying still for the day as we could hear the gusting 25mph winds outside. A few boaters went passed who assured us in was fine “on the cut” so we started off.

Today we have travelled along to the end of the Straford on Avon canal to Kings Norton Junction where we have joined the Birmingham and Worcester canal. Here is the junction

Kings Norton Junction

The building with scaffolding is the old canal company office

You can just about make out the “mileages and tolls”

We have now travelled along the Birmingham and Worcester canal for a few hours and passed some really lovely scenery, we then passed though one of the UK canals longest tunnels at 2276 yards long – The Wast Hills tunnel.

Here are the video in and video out of the tunnels, notice how long it took to get through

Wast Hills tunnel entrance
Wast Hills tunnel exit

Believe it or not this tunnel is a two way tunnel, we actually passed a boat mid tunnel, you can see there is not a lot of room

Holiday 2020 – day 7

Here is the map of the day

We have finished the day on the Stratford canal heading towards Kings Norton junction where we will join the Worcester and Birmingham Canal.

Today has been another very busy lock day so Wendy has decided we are going out to dinner tonight. We have found a nice looking restaurant called Mortons Kitchen.

Here are some pictures of the day

Holiday 2020 day 6

Here is todays map

We travelled from Leamington Spa, through warwick and then up the Hatton lock flight. The weather today was pretty poor with heavy rain tin the morning as we started the flight. By tea time when we completed it it had a least stopped raining. at 5:30, Wendy was asking if we could stop for lunch, not realising we had missed that hours ago!

Needless to say, Wendy is very tired this evening!

We were lucky enough to meet another boat with a young couple on to do most of the flight with. You tend to get a mini life story as you chat, turns out this guy was a nuclear engineer!

Here is a mooring spot for tonight

Tomorrow, the weather promises to be better, lets hope so.

Holiday 2020 day 5

Here is the map of day 5

A winding trip on the Grand Union, locks about every 15 minutes so no peace for Wendy! – Little did she know this was just a warm up.

This is a new canal to us so around every turn there is something new to see. At the end of the day we stopped in Leamington Spa, the weather was still good so we did some washing 🙂

A launderette with a view!

View from the launderette!

Holiday 2020 day 4

Here is the Map of the day

Today we have gone from Napton and are about 30 minutes away from Leamington Spa. In doing so we have moved off the Oxford canal to the Grand Union. This section of the Grand Union was made a wide beam canal in the 1930’s so all the single locks were replaced with double locks so twice and much cargo could be moved. For us pleasure boaters this means very heavy gated locks. Luckily we met with another boat and came through together, this save water and means you have double the manpower!

Here are some photos from the day