Drifting Down the Severn

We spent the night last night moored up in the Stourport Basin and popped over to Hartlebury in a taxi to visit Margaret (Andrew's cousin) and her hubby, Neil.  It made a change from just talking to each other every night :)  Thanks Margaret and Neil for a very pleasant evening out.

This morning, after a diesel and water top up, we descended the 2 staircase locks at Stourport and ventured out onto the Severn River.

Leaving Stourport, lock entrance on the right (in front of the bright building)

and on to the Severn River

Relaxed Captain mode

It is very wide after being on the canals for quite a few months now.  It was rather nice having all the locks sorted. No hopping off the boat and no energy expended. Quite fun.

Approaching first lock

Back on the river

Leaving second lock, shared with another boat

Views are a bit different coming into Worcester but surprisingly not a lot of places to moor up on the river and even more surprising, no-one moored there either.  We got caught up in a sudden downpour as we approached the last mooring stop before Diglis Locks.  

Approaching Worcester

Worcester Cathedral

The Hive, Worcester Library.  Covered in copper alloy

Before downpour

After downpour

We decided not to moor up in Worcester for the night though, mostly because we have no reason to go into Worcester. We did that back in 2006. Instead we carried on drifting with the flow for another two hours.  We would rather spend more time taking it slow up the River Avon which we should join at Tewkesbury tomorrow.

 

 

Tonight's mooring, Upton-on-Severn

The very large poles are for the floating pontoons. This allows the pontoons to rise and fall with the river levels.

The white mark shows the river level in May 2012. There is another one on the other side about 2 1/2 ft higher from July 2007!