Stratford was very busy, with a Boat festival and Music festival, and having been here before, we decided after going into Town, that we would move on, it was so busy, Geoff went to get the license (£50 for seven days) to go on the River Avon. Margaret and Simon also decided to move on, so Margaret and I walked to the lock, to open the gates.
Scenes on the Avon
When we finished the lock, opened the gates, there were about fifty
Some of the swans
swans as a welcoming party, we walked to get on the boats, when we were told we could not get on boats there, and we would have to walk over the bridge and the boys had to meet us the other side of the River, ridiculous a two minute job took about ten minutes, so much for making the boats welcome!
One of the locks
The River Avon is lovely, I prefer it to the Thames, we stopped at the first lock, which was huge, we think you could get three narrowboats in some of them, we helped a guy through, who we thought was on his own, as he seemed to be doing everything, when we suddenly spotted a lady just sitting holding one of the ropes, we were not impressed with that, so we let him get ahead of us.
We moored up just before the lock, Margaret let her lovely Bengal Cat
Claud relaxing in the sun
out, he is gorgeous, his name is Claud, even Geoff has taken a shine to him, Claud is fitted with a GPS collar, so they can track where he is, he seems to go hunting at night, but is always back in the morning.
We had our normal six o clock, cocktails, with Simon and Margaret, sitting on the bench by the lock, then stopped for supper, and later we played Phase 10, another lovely day. There were some students
Claud on look out duties
having a drink, and a swim in the River, which we worried about, but they were very good, and left at a sensible time, so we all got our beauty sleep.
We headed for Bidford-on-Avon, where we both stopped for lunch, another lovely mooring, in the middle of the town, the
Early morning start
weather has been amazing, we walked to the boat yard, to see if they do fuel, which they didn’t, then went for a lovely lunch, wondered around the town, walked up to the church, then walked back to the boats, normal
Church at Bidford-on-Avon
cocktails this time in the park, and later played Phase 10. I have won twice and Simon once, come on Geoff and Margaret, your turn next!
We filled up with water, before we left in the morning, this time heading for Evesham, where we stopped for fuel, as we were both getting low, had some lunch
The houses and the gardens along the river are stunning.
in the centre, but decided that we would not stop as the place has a bad reputation so we moved onto Fladbury Lock and stopped the night, enjoying cocktails and another game of Phase 10.