Sept 7

I’m in Evesham, having travelled back to Tewkesbury, spent the night there beside a boat, washed up during the floods last spring, and perched precariously hanging overe the edge of the river bank. How not to moor the boat!

I revisited the marvellous town of Tewksbury. They have really worked hard to make the town historic, colourful and attractive. Lots of half-timbered buildings. The flags are the coats of arms of the knights that fought in the battle that took place nearby.

Then up the Avon river. What a difference from the Severn: there the banks are tall, and there are trees and bushes, which is about all you can see. The Avon has much lower banks, and there are fields to the water’s edge, so there is as much to see as in most canals. Idyllic! The weather has also been late summer sun (I got burned a little in patches where I hadn’t got the sunscreen properly spread). I managed the very difficult river locks: they are wide, and the upstream paddles shoot water directly at the boat. I need to manage both bow and stern lines, while staying at the paddles on both sides of the lock (15′ apart). Needless to say, I run around a lot, and am quite slow so that things don’t occur so quickly I cannot respond in time.

I stayed overnight in Pershore, a lovely little market town, with the remnants of an abbey, destroyed mostly in the 1500’s when most abbeys were dissolved. There is a remaining church, and the stonework of former attachments is fascinating- a good glimpse into how structures were built.

I am now in Evesham, another delightful market town, with a market this morning. Lots of pedestrianized lanes and street, preserved from medieval times. Another abbey; this one with less remaining, except there are two churches within 50m of each other. One is preserved by the histroic church society, the other is still in use. The trip from Pershore was interesting: there was a couple moored ahead of me in Pershore, who departed within minutes of me. They were obviously completely new, and had no clue what to do in locks, or driving the boat or whatever. My hope was to have someone to help with the lock duties. Instead, I ended up doing ALL the lock work, managing my boat, AND helping them. Both stayed firmly on their boat looking completely helpless and forlorn. We made without significant incident.