Friday 8th August and Saturday 9th August, 2014 in Gloucester.
Robin had been asked by Peter to attend a legal meeting in London, so he set off very early on Friday to catch a bus to the nearest railway station two miles away. The station consisted of two platforms - no displays, no loudspeakers, no ticket machine, just two platforms. At least the train was on time!
M was supposed to spend the day relaxing, but her definition of relaxing and enjoying herself is being domestic. So she enjoyed herself washing the boat down, cleaning windows, polishing woodwork et al!
R returned well after dark; the only unusual element of the journey was a lady in First Class who had purchased a ticket for her Alsatian dog - who sat quietly on his seat, only complaining vocally when the train slowed down to stop at a station!
On Saturday morning, we decided to make an early start as technically we had overstayed our Avon River licence by one night. The very cheerful lock-keeper, however, was relaxed about it and said that there was no hurry.
The connecting lock between the two rivers is manned. M had to stand in the bow with the front rope and remained there until the next lock, which is only half a mile down the Severn and is also manned (as are all the locks on the Severn). M said it was a bit unnerving sitting so low in the bow in the middle of such a massive expanse of water; it's only now she's discovered that the Severn is England's biggest river!
Upper Lode Lock is simply huge. It is by far the biggest lock we have ever been in. It's so deep that we had to moor on to vertical wires set into
the lock wall, so that the mooring lines went up with us as the lock
filled.
It was so wide that we could have turned MM round in it! We had
difficulty hearing the lock keeper's shouted instructions over the sound
of the water and the wind, which was blowing very hard in our faces. In the photo below, we are starting to sail out of the lock - but we are still inside it!
We had thought that the Avon was big - but it was dwarfed by the Severn! Yet there is no comparison in terms of interest. The Severn is very wide, but it has high banks on either side and there are trees growing on the banks so that sadly, you actually can't see anything of the views beyond.
So, we declared the Severn to be - Mighty, Magnificent - and Monotonous!
Passing cabin cruisers made a big wash, which caused us to rock a bit.
The river is tidal here, but only for very high tides that cause the famous "Severn Bore" or high wave that rushes up the Estuary. There will be one such high tide on our return, but today there was none although the river flows quite quickly.
We arrived outside Gloucester Lock at lunchtime and had to moor on to chains hung from the wall below the lock until the lock gates opened for us.
Gloucester Lock is again huge and we had difficulty hearing the lock-keeper's instructions as we were a long way below him.
There are herring-bone moorings in the basin on the waterfront and there was space for MM so R backed her in and we moored up. The basin is surrounded by beautifully restored warehouses, many of which are apartments.
We found that nb "Brandywine" (last seen at Stratford) was on the same moorings, along with nb "Gandalf", with the boat name written in elvish script. So the basin had a definite Tolkien feel!
We walked in to the city, Costa being a prime objective as usual. There were some lovely buildings, including many with overhanging gables, one of which was Costa!
We walked down to the Cathedral which, in terms of pure scale, is awe-inspiring; a true masterpiece of mediaeval architecture. There was a service in progress and we sat for a while and listened to the choir singing - excellent!
It is interesting to compare the three large towns that we have visited this week. Evesham lost its Abbey in the Reformation, the site of which is now a park. Tewkesbury's citizens bought the Abbey from Henry VIII as their Parish Church, but Gloucester's Abbey became a Cathedral and survives including its incredibly intricate cloister. One possible reason is that it contains the tomb of King Edward II, sadly murdered by his brother, as well as that of the son of William the Conqueror. It still boasts the largest stained glass window in England.
Back at MM, we fell into conversation with the "crew" of "Gandalf", Mike, Gillian, Matthew and Amanda; the boat belongs to Mike's parents.
They were great fun and came back to MM for a look around.
Two Days: 14 miles, 3 locks and 7.8 hours.
Trip: 146 miles, 104 locks and 121.1 hours.
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