The River Severn & The South East

Hello everyone! We hope you are all keeping well and are having a good bank holiday!

Much has been happening here on Daisy Duke and also back at home in Derby.

We left Stourport Junction as planned on 24^th April and descended a couple of tricky locks (with a full audience) onto the River Severn, our first river this year. We were pleasantly surprised as the river was very peaceful and calm and I was happy to see that there were plenty of places to get out onto the bank should there be an emergency sinking situation.  We soon settled into our routine of admiring the views whilst keeping an eye out for weirs, sign posts and other river users such as kayakers, work boats and other vessels.

As it has been almost a month since we last blogged, and it would take another month to write about everything, we are going to summarise the highlights of the last month:

The River Severn

On our travels down the River Severn, we have seen some real big ass aggregate work boats going to and from the quarry which fascinated Paul.

The locks on the river are absolutely monstrous and are all mechanically operated by a lock keeper. When you enter the lock, you have to loop your bow and stern ropes around a steel cable to secure the boat and stop it being bashed around by the rising/lowering waters.

We even came across one strange fellow boater who’s boat (complete with a storage butty boat on the back) appeared to have broken down. Paul pulled alongside and  shouted over to see if he needed any help but no, the guy had just decided to go for a swim 😀

Fact  – the River Severn is 220 miles long and it starts in the Welsh mountains and finishes in the River Severn estuary,

Droitwich

Droitwich has its own canal which loops off the River Severn onto the Birmingham & Worcester, where you can either turn off up to Birmingham or back onto the River Severn. We spent a lovely couple of days at Droitwich which was a medium sized town with a good number of pubs and restaurants.  We also stumbled upon a food and drink festival which had some funky stalls and lots of delicious freebies.  Whilst there, we signed Zak up to a trial of ‘Pure’ dog food which he was very excited about. On a negative, the locks on the Droitwich were really heavy and I did myself a bit of an injury trying to push the locks open. This resulted in me have a ‘moody’ inside Daisy and refusing to come out for a while – I hate not being able to do things and have to admit that Paul is much stronger and better at this than me.

Leaving Droitwich was fun as we went through some really low tunnels, including one that went under the M5.

Birmingham & Worcester

The Birmingham & Worcester Canal goes through some really beautiful Countryside and there are plenty of trainlines close by. I didn’t manage to get any honks but I did manage to get a good video of a train hurtling past.

We decided to have a couple of nights in the middle of nowhere and enjoyed BBQing, sunbathing and generally relaxing.

The end of the canal took us into the heart of Worcester where we again spent a couple of days. Moorings were scarce here but we were lucky enough to find a spot right next to one of the roads that led directly into the city centre. Unfortunately though it was the place where a couple of local ‘alkies’ liked to hang out. They were harmless enough and we were fascinated by their ability to consume vast amounts of beer – one even confessed to drinking around 30 cans of Budweiser per day!! Worcester is definitely a place to visit again, plenty of shops and beautiful architecture.

Whilst here it was Beltane – which marks the start of summer and is about midway between the Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice and so I managed to find a group of beautiful people celebrating this and so I jumped in a cab and went out somewhere near the Malvern Hills and spent the evening tree hugging, singing, dancing and jumping over a fire.  Paul meanwhile stayed at home with Zak which, with hindsight, was a very good thing as he would NOT have enjoyed the experience!

Next we headed from Worcester back onto the River Sever and down to Tewkesbury. This was another really fun day on the river and there was lots of activity from working boats. We successfully earned a good honk from a passing ship!

We also enjoyed looking at some of the amazing properties which overlook the river.  It took about 6 hours for us to reach Tewkesbury where you have to turn off the River Severn and on to the River Avon. The River Avon is managed by the River Avon Navigation Trust and requires a different licence. So, we paid for a couple of nights and moored up just after the huge lock off the River Severn.

Tewkesbury

Tewkesbury is another beautiful town and we found a pub called (of all things) the Nottingham where we managed to watch DCFC stay up in the Championship division. We had some fun banter in there with the locals and also made some new friends, The Black Bear had  a great band on and was absolutely heaving, it was very similar to the Bless on a busy Saturday night.

Feeling slightly worse for wear the next day, we set off back onto the River Severn and down to Gloucester. This part of the river is not as scenic but it gets tidal as you approach Gloucester and so we were given strict instructions to follow by the lockie.  I was a bit nervous but it wasn’t too bad.

Gloucester & Sharpness

Gloucseter has a beautulf dockland area and there was a market on when we arrived so we were able to have a mooch around and enjoy the free samples that were on offer. We ended up buying some olives that cost the same as a meal out!

From Gloucester, the water turns into the Gloucester & Sharpness canal but it certainly doesn’t not look like a canal – more like a river.  We went on through some almighty swing bridges which, again, are all manned by lockies. You can see the enormity in the vide below. I guess they have to be big because of the size of the ships that pass through them.

We went on all the way down to Sharpness which took around 6 hours in total. Now, Sharpness is one of the strangest places we have ever visited. It is like a huge, abandoned harbour town with a nasty looking factory that dominates the skyline. We were however able to view the estuary that goes all the way down to Bristol.  Whilst it looked peaceful now we could see how it could be treacherous in higher waters.

There is in fact a boat graveyard just outside of Sharpness which we went to view, and you can see the  boat skeletons which all have plaques giving details of the craft that came to die there.

From Sharpness, we sailed all the way back to Glousceter where we moored Daisy up on the towpath near one of the big locks and we left her there for who weeks whilst we headed back to Derby as we had a few things planned.

Decisions in Derby

Whilst back at Derby, we made the sad decision to bring our adventures on Daisy to an end now, rather than waiting until the end of the summer.  There are a number of reasons for this, including being closer to family who need us, I have impending eye surgery scheduled, a new grandchild who looks as though she will arrive before time and a whole host of other reasons – including the state of the canal system.

We are now back on Daisy who was patiently awaiting our return (and who appeared in just as good nick as when we left her) and have commenced our journey back towards Mercia Marina where we will list Daisy for sale.  We had hoped to travel back up the River Severn to Worcester, then the River Avon to Stratford. and from Stratford-upon-Avon, to the Midlands. However, we have already been thwarted as the Stratford flight is out until the 26th June so we are busy looking for an alternative route.  

Having made the decision to stop, we are no longer sad, we are excited for our next adventures (of which there are a couple in the pipeline – details to be revealed in due course) and we are going to really enjoy our final voyage back home.

We will update you along the way!

Jo, Paul, Zak & Daisy xxx