Evesham to Luddington

We were fairly pleased that we decided to stay put in Evesham yesterday.The day progressed from very windy to very wet and then sunny, on and off for the remainder of the day.

During one of the sunny periods I was able to hop out and get a piccy of our view from the boat (if you stand up and look out the window that is) and our mooring.  I have to say that the Evesham Town moorings are very nice, just a pity we could not switch off the wind machine.

Abbey Park and the Bell Tower

Our mooring

This morning we continued our journey up the Avon towards Stratford-on-Avon, as we have to leave the river tomorrow by midday, or we have to pay for an extra day!

Looking back it felt like we were cruising uphill

Today though, the weather has been rather pleasant.  Still the occasional cold breeze but the sun made lots of visits and warmed us up quite nicely. The 8 locks might also have had something to do with warming us up.

On the matter of locks, a quick way to piss off any boater.  At our 3rd lock of the day, another narrowboat was moored just above the lock. Not on the overnight mooring, but on the lock landing. As we were closing the gates, a head popped out the moored boat. Next thing as we started filling the lock, the said boater started up engines and motored off to the next lock which was just 15minutes away.  Not a very chatty boater either. On approaching the next lock, we would normally have expected any decent boater to have the lock ready and waiting for us, as these river locks are broad locks which can take 2 narrowboats at a time and we would have ascended together. But NO, said boater had ascended lock without us and was just exiting as we arrived. At which point we had to moor up, empty the lock and all the rest before continuing our own journey.  Lucky though for said boater, that they then moored up at the next marina, or I would have said something they regretted at one of the next 5 locks we ascended today.

We had another first bird sighting today. Our first ever Great Spotted Woodpecker and in the same spot but on the opposite bank, a Little Grebe. Andrew says he saw a bright yellow bird at the same place but it flew off before we could identify it. The sunny weather also brought out the kingfishers as we saw a few of those too.

Swan rug !

I wonder if she realizes she has lost an egg

Tuffted Duck's

Grey Heron

All in all, I definitely think that I am a fair weather boater.  I did not enjoy winter on the boat very much. The weather outside is freezing and the days are very short.  The long evenings can get very boring.  On the other hand, while the trees are bare, you can see for miles.  The warmer days are much nicer.  You don't mind being out the back of the boat, hopping on and off to do the locks.  There is more wildlife around too.  The one thing though is once summer does eventually make an appearance, the trees will be full of leaves and hide a lot of the birds and views.  But I am looking forward to sitting on the towpath, mug of tea in hand, in the early evening just enjoying the end of the day and listening to the birds.

So last pic from today's trip:

15th century Bidford Bridge