Monday 2^nd June 2019

We left the mooring and, after turning in the river, headed downstream once again. It had started to spit as we moved off and the rain became heavy and lasted all day, only clearing once we had moored up mid-afternoon.

The river Worcester river frontage is quite stunning and a pleasure to pass waving at the people walking along the river path. There were literally hundreds of swans opposite the Cathedral.

At Diglis Lock we had to hold off. A hire boat had gone into the lock and, only after talking with the lock keeper, discovered they had gone passed the entrance to the Worcester & Birmingham Canal at Diglis Basins. You wonder how far they would have gone before realising this themselves. The lock then had to be refilled and they reverse out of it. However, they were not confident about turning the boat so the keeper had to do it for them. All the time we were holding the boat above the lock again the pull of the weir.

The run down the river passes through lovely countryside but, with tree-lined banks, there is little of interest. There was a narrow boat who had passed about 30 minutes before we moved off this morning that we were gradually catching. Just before we caught him, there were two flotillas of cabin cruisers coming towards us, some of them large and most going fast. The waves from the washes were quite high and challenging to cope with, having to turn into the higher ones.

Once these had passed, we overtook the narrowboat. Great fun. This guy told us he was going up to Tewkesbury and yet he followed us right past the turning and on into Upper Lode Lock, apparently having changed his mind. He was one of these strange characters that the canals seem to attract a lot of time.

Upper Lode Lock is enormous and queerly shaped. The River Severn locks are about 20 feet wide and 150 feet long. Upper Lode is like two locks in one with the first section being like any of the other locks, but then having a wider section at the downstream end. This downstream part was about 100 feet long and at least 40 feet wide, with sloping sides and steps leading down to the waters lower level. Apparently, the lock is formed in this way to accommodate more barges in the days of commercial carrying, and to provide more water in the river downstream, for the run to Gloucester Lock. In this case, you would expect there to have been a set of gates between the two sections, so that the lock could be used for small craft or large barges. We felt very small in the lock, a lot of water.

     

Upper Lode Lock

We moored about ½ mile below the lock at the Lower Lode Inn and were the only boat on the mooring. The boat we had overtaken earlier moored with us but, after 10 minutes or so, moved on.

   

  

The Lower Lode Inn is a 15^th century building in a delightful, isolated location. Inside were big wood burning stoves, old photographs of the pub in bygone days, photographs of floods and huge slate slabs as flooring.

We returned here in the evening for dinner.

Weather: raining heavily until mid-afternoon. A pleasant evening.

Day Total: 2 locks; 18 miles; 0 Tunnels; 0 Swing Bridges; 0 Lift Bridges; 0 Boat Lift; engine running hours 4.1

Overall Total: 538 locks; 953 miles; 46 tunnels; 14 Swing Bridges; 3 Lift Bridges; 2 Boat Lifts; engine running hours 616.6