Mike Stevens' UK Inland Waterways Pages

TRIP REPORTS : THE YEARS BETWEEN BOATS

BIRMINGHAM & SHARPNESS

August 1987

Part 2 : Tewkesbury to Sharpness & back to Gloucester

At 07:36 we set off again down the Severn, with a short wait for the lock-keeper at Upper Lode to come on duty at 08:00. He advised us to make a fast run to get to Gloucester before the tide came over the weir. We arrived below Gloucester lock while the ebb was still running fast and made a dog's breakfast of holding there by getting the wrong rope ashore first. The lock-keeper's hand signals were impossible to decipher. Eventually we got into the lock and locked up into Gloucester Docks and moored just past Llanthony bridge. We went shopping (good but not close) and found a Wadworth's pub for lunch. The rain started at 12:00 as forecast.

After lunch we set off towards Sharpness, finding it a luxury to have the swing-bridges keeper-operated. At Park End bridge we were delayed about 40 minutes by a fault on the bridge controls. An engineer had to be fetched from Swindon. The scenery on this canal, even through the rain, proved pleasanter than we had expected. At Sharpness we found that the moorings in the arm to the old entrance lock are mainly club ones, so we winded and moored at 18:07 at the junction. Wendy had a bit of a coming-together with something while winding and lifted one of the back rail-tops off. We would need to get some screws to mend it. We walked round the old basins before another barbecue, then watched (& listened to) the tide coming in over the mud flats.

We decided on a late start in order to watch the tide again in daylight. It was well worth the wait. We set off at 10:02, with some entertainment by a dredger.

We stopped at Patch bridge to visit the Wildfowl Trust at Slimbridge, which we thought very interesting and beautiful, and the weather was good. Then we continued back to Gloucester and moored before Llanthony bridge at 17:10.

Gloucester Docks (above & below)

We weren't sure how far above & below the bridge the "no mooring" sign applied, so took pot luck. Wendy went off to buy some butter, Peter & I for some photography around the docks. We had to scramble under locked gates to get back to the mooring. After dinner we played Scrabble. I won, allegedly in a low way. The forecast rain never arrived.