Dodging the weather to Tewkesbury

We have spent the last few days moving when the weather has allowed, we have had some torrential downpours, some longer than others but also some breaks of sunshine.  We have hopped down the remainder of the Staffs & Worcester arriving at Stourport on Severn.  The locks along this stretch are spaced out but usually in lovely settings in the sandstone cuttings.  We stopped at Kinver to visit Wilsons to see if we can have our pram hood altered so that the front zips up which will allow us to run (bridges permitting) with it up when its raining.  We tried cruising with it up whilst on the L&L but found that we couldn't see out the front (needs windscreen wipers, or the alternative, the front zipping up), they can do it so we said we will let them know where we are for the winter and they will collect it.  We visited Sainsburys in Kidderminster to stock up on everything.

As the weather was much improved this morning and the forecast was for a good day today and awful tomorrow, we decided to hit the River Severn.  We set off just after 9:00 and we followed a boat down the two staircases with two behind us.  It was 9:25 as we hit the river.  We were undecided whether to stop at Worcester or keep going to Tewkesbury.  Once on the River we were making good progress, this is the first time we have gone down the Severn we have always gone up previously.  The locks along the Severn are worked for you, on approach there are traffic lights, red, red flashing, green, all were on red or red flashing but they don't take long.  The weather was ok, sunny or light cloud, quite breezy/windy at times.  As we approached Worcester we decided to keep going, about two miles past the sky went black and the heavens opened.  John had his waterproof jacket on and hat and I disappeared inside, I made a banana loaf, and a bolognese for tea and also hoovered and dusted, by the time I had finished we were approaching Tewkesbury and it was only 15:40, not bad going.  We locked up onto the River Avon, paid for our 7 day River Avon license and have moored just above the lock

I have to admit I am not enamoured by the River Severn, other than Worcester there isn't very much to look at other than lots of trees and willow and occasional boats, also coming downstream the wash from boats going up did rock us about a lot, and some who were really going for it caused us to be rocking for ages, but we didn't see anything going towards Stourport until we were nearly in Worcester.  The lock keepers were saying its been a really quiet year.  

We haven't blogged for a few days as we have had a bit of an IT problem.  We have WIFI on Triskaideka with a router, dongle with our two laptops on a network.  The other day our network completely disappeared and I have had to reset the router and set everything back up.  We have no idea why it happened we have not had any problems since it was set up and it works really well, although it took a while to sort out it seems to be up and running again now.

We have seen some lovely gardens this year 

but this one takes some beating and it was a large garden

Not sure if he was sunning or fishing

Not much room

Kidderminster

This seems to be the solution and replacement for the scaffolding poles that have been along many of the bridges along the Staffs & Worcs since the accident at Stourport and BW went H&S mad

How long before the steel girders are nicked for scrap?

Onto the River Severn

First lock of the day

Approaching Worcester

The Michael Baker Boathouse is almost complete (and looking good)

Working gravel barges

One turning in front of us

This evening a dummy was thrown into the River Avon from Mountain Rescue

 on the bridge and a little later he was rescued!

56 miles, 35 locks

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