Saturday 1^st June 2019

We did a wash while Brenda went shopping and left the moorings about 10am but had to travel almost a mile before being able to turn. We had the option of reversing through the lock into the basin but the scene had become busy with hire boats queuing to come up the lock.

We locked down the deep, 12 foot, York Street Lock and watered up at the sanitary station. Thankfully the bins had been emptied. After crossing the basins, we became held in a queue for the locks down to the river. We had to hold in the basin for a while until we could get onto the pontoon which took some delicate manoeuvring. Not all the boats could manage and it was amusing watching them. Luckily, once we were in the locks we did not meet any boats coming up, but there were loads of people “gongoozling”, the term applied to people who watch the boats.

Then we were through and onto the river. It felt great.

The comical Irish lock keeper was on duty at Lincomb Lock. He had a tale that, once you have drunk 5 pints of Guinness, you can be blindfolded and won’t be able to tell the difference between water, lager or Guinness.

The miserable, dour, young keeper was on duty at Holt Lock and virtually told us off for phoning ahead to warn of our approach. At Bevere Lock the keeper was much friendlier and told us it was not strictly necessary to phone but they appreciated a call, more for good manners and to forewarn them.

We were retracing our steps but going down the river and moving so much faster. At Hawford Wood it was really disconcerting and worrying to hear many guns blasting away. They sounded more like high calibre weapons than shotguns and didn’t sound too far from the river. We both felt really uncomfortable and were glad when the noise eventually receded behind us. A bit of a scary experience.

We had planned to stop at the Camp House Inn just below Bevere Lock but, as expected, the mooring was full. This is the trouble with the pub moorings, many are unmaintained and all are so small that they rarely take more than one narrowboat. The Camp House mooring will take a narrowboat in addition to a largish cabin cruiser. When we arrived there was a cruiser and two narrow boats breasted up. Nonetheless, we turned to approach from downstream with the intention of breasting alongside. Just as we were tying up, the couple off the outer boat returned ready to move off, so we had to reverse out onto the river to give them room.

We then approached again and started to tie up to the other boat, only for them to return and make ready to move so, once again, we had to move off to allow them room. The couple on this boat were American, hiring for the first time, and were really enjoying themselves. I always think it is great for people from overseas to come over and hire a canal boat, where they will see something of the real England, rather than just going to London. This couple had fully immersed themselves in our countryside, history and culture. Good for them.

Just as we were releasing ourselves from their boat, a cabin cruiser arrived wanting to moor. We tied him to ourselves and reversed out onto the river with him alongside then, once the American’s had left, we moved onto the landing stage, bringing the cruiser with us. Great fun when the manoeuvring goes well. And just as well because we had a large crowd watching us.

The Camp House Inn is a lovely old place but very remote and is served only by a small track that leads to a B-road, and yet so busy. There were hens, bantams, ornamental geese and peacocks roaming the grounds of the pub and they provided a lot of entertainment. They also sold Batham’s beer, a Brierly Hill, West Midlands brewer that we had been hearing about and Reg, off the cruiser was good enough to buy me a pint. Lovely beer. 

We sat with the people off the cruiser and had a great afternoon with them, drinking far too much in the process. One of the company briefly used to play professional football for West Brom and, once prompted, gave a fascinating insight into the life of a footballer. I wouldn’t swap places with them.

The cruiser crowd made ready to leave and we decided to leave also. We had planned to stay for the night but, not now planning to eat here, we felt awkward staying on their moorings. By this time, I was quite pissed. Just as well we were not travelling by car.

We hammered our way down to Worcester and moored below the race course again. Dinner was a lovely mix of spaghetti with mussels and prawns. It had been a fabulous day.

Weather: very hot and sunny.

Day Total: 8 locks; 11 miles; 0 Tunnels; 0 Swing Bridges; 0 Lift Bridges; 0 Boat Lift; engine running hours 5.7

Overall Total: 536 locks; 935 miles; 46 tunnels; 14 Swing Bridges; 3 Lift Bridges; 2 Boat Lifts; engine running hours 612.5