We awoke to the sound of heavy rain on the roof, but again by the time we were ready to descend the last Avon lock that would send us out onto the River Severn, the sun was shining brightly.
We had sixteen and a half miles and one lock to travel to reach Worcester. This is the widest piece of water we are likely to cruise up unless we do The Thames. Fortunately with recent, relatively dry weather and the sunshine, the cruise was delightful and the life jackets that had been deployed were un-necessary.
We stopped for lunch at Upton upon Severn, and again a delightful riverside jumble of buildings, most of them pubs, some not yet reopened following the floods. We moored by the Swan Inn, who had only reopened on Good Friday, they gave us a warm welcome and good beer. Up the High Street we found a great butchers, something that in the south of England we have been deprived off, stuffed lambs hearts for dinner tonight.
We arrived at the huge double Diglis locks just before they closed at 6pm but I had phoned ahead to the lock keeper and he had the left hand lock prepared for us. There were long plastic poles at each end to thread the mooring lines through to stop the boat moving about, but it was a gentle giant of a lock and we smoothly rose to the top. We tied up for the night immediately after the lock and before the entrance to the Worcester and Birmingham Canal.
Following out poor start on the two rivers, wedging under the bridge at Stratford and running aground, Jacquie did admit that in the whole the rivers had been a pleasant and not too scary an experience, apart from witnessing the recovery attempts of a narrow boat that had sunk in January, but we have decided that we do prefer the canals, as there is so much more freedom as to where you can moor, and with more traffic, they feel friendlier.
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