By the time we got to Evesham we had had some spots of rain, but not too bad. We stopped to use the free pumpout machine near Glovers island. Whilst we were pumping out the rain started to get heavier. On the section before Fladbury lock the intensity of the rain increase, and as went down the reach from Fladbury to Wyre Lock the heavens opened and we had about half an hour of some of the heaviest rain Ive ever seen! We shared Wyre lock with a young couple on a Black Prince Hire boat (Robyn). They left the lock before us and took the last available space at the Recreation Ground, so we went down through Pershore Lock and moored up just below Pershore bridges. By this time the flow was getting noticable stronger and the level gauge was in the “amber”. We were cold and wet like drowned rats!

Growing on tree at the picnic site we found these bracket fungi, there were also some on the ground. They smelt delicious, but we were too scared to try cooking them!

The gauge was by now just in the orange and the river was rising so we decided to stay put until the morning. The weather had improved a lot so the afternoon was spent wandering around the town of Pershore. We went to have a look at the abbey, but as we approached the door we were told it was just closing.
In the evening we cooked a barbecue outside but ate inside. The wind was blowing strongly so we had to rig up a makeshift windbreak. Not easy when you cant hammer the poles into concrete.

A lazy start today. We got up and went for a walk along the riverside to the bridge below Colin P. Witter lock and back up through the churchyard. When the building work is finished you will be able to walk along between the river and the theatre, but at the moment it’s a building site. In Bancroft gardens there was a street market selling a wide range of upmarket stuff, mostly for the tourist trade. We whiled away nearly an hour here then when back to the boat for a cooked breakfast. After a while relaxing, sitting in the sun, soaking up the atmosphere, we topped up the water and headed back downstream.

The afternoon was warm and sunny and we had a great run down to Bidford, more enjoyable than the trip up without the pressure of the day before.

We arrived at Bidford about 15:30, it was a lovely afternoon so we had a Pimms sitting at one of the picnic benches. Later, after a short walk around the village, we had a barbecue in the warm evening air.

The current was strong in some places, but the gauges were in the “green” all the way and when we arrived in Stratford the water was calm and peaceful, so we decided to moor opposite the RSC theatre. It was great atmosphere with lots of people enjoying the sunshine, the trip boats going up and down and people in rowing boats etc.

We went for a wander around the town to find the restaurant where we had booked a table for the evening meal. It was lucky that we didn’t need to get up onto the canal because Bancroft basin was full, with several hire boats arriving and looking for mooring space. The evening was finished off with a meal at Cafe Rouge and another pleasant wander back though the town in the warm evening air.

I was a little concerned about finding mooring places as we had been warned that they were in short supply. So the first task was to find somewhere for breakfast. We came under Eckington bridge to see two narrowboats at the wharf with just about enough space for us to squeeze in on the end. We had to tie the bow rope on to a nearby tree root as we were off the end of the moorings proper. On the reach from Nafford to Pershore we saw a black swan. These are native to Australia, so i assume that this one is an escapee.

We shared Pershore and Wyre locks with a GRP cruiser. The guy from the cruiser was rather paranoid that we might damage his boat. I can understand him being wary, but with a crew of four we had plenty of hands to ensure that we were roped up correctly.

The cruiser stopped soon after Wyre lock and for the rest of the day we did the locks alone. I was pleased to see that there more mooring places than I had been led to believe. On the lower Avon these are all marked with blue posts.

We moored for the night at Workman Gardens in the centre of Evesham.

We stopped briefly at Worcester where we topped up the water and had lunch whilst it was filling. The rest of the journey down was uneventful until Upton upon Severn where it started to rain. It rained hard then for the rest of the day. We got to Avon Lock at Tewkesbury just after five. The locky came out in the pouring rain to deal with us and was very friendly and helpful. He relieved me of £45.00 for the ANT licence and we chugged a couple of hundred yards up the the marina’s visitor moorings where T & L were waiting for us.

The install went fairly well even though the working space in the cupboard is vary limited.

We set out after lunch and made good progress down to Stourport. The intention was to moor overnight on the river pontoons, but when we got there all the space was taken. We carried on through Lincomb Lock to the pub moorings at Hampstall ferry. It looked like there was no space here too as the Edward Elgar trip boat was taking up about half the space and a couple of cruisers the rest. As we hovered about looking for a space the captain of the Edward Elgar called out “If you’re looking for a space, I’m leaving in 20 to 30 mins”. So we tied up temporarily and waited. Well it was almost an hour before his elderly customers tottered down the ramp from the pub and climbed aboard.

We moored up and I went into the pub to see what the arrangements were. It’s £10.00 per night, or free if you take a meal in the pub, so we ate in the pub !

As we came up through Gailey lock Heddi called out “I’ve got no power!” I could hear the engine was still running - my first thought was that she’d picked up something round the prop in the lock. But it soon became clear that the throttle cable had gone - again! We push the boat over to the side and I lifted the engine cover to confirm it. Luckily we were right outside Viking Afloat’s hire base. I thought that it was most likely that they would have one. They had a 2.5m cable and a 3,25m but not a 3m. I opted for the 2.5. It didn’t take long to fit it and we were on our way again in about 30 minutes.

We stopped at Limekiln Chandlers in Compton to buy a spare cable and to replace the chimney that we lost earlier in the year.

We stopped briefly in Tixall wide for a full English breakfast. We stopped for the night between the two locks at Penkridge. It was a bit busy there and with hindsight we would have been better above Filance Lock.

On our usual evening walk we went into the town in search of a late night convenience store that we have used previously. We couldn’t find it, but then found one only about 50yds from Penkridge lock!

Sorry, still no pics.

We did a few jobs around the boat. I treated the roof with a Jeyes Fluid solution to remove some of the algae that had developed during the winter. The problem was that I tried to rinse it off with the mop, the rough non-slip surface on the roof tended to shred the mop so I ended up with a slightly fluffy roof!

We stopped in Alrewas to visit the excellent butcher and pick up a few things from the Co-op. Then on to Fradley where we had a pumpout and topped up with diesel. A slowish chug up to Armitage where we moored up at about 5 o’clock.

We had our meal in the Plum Pudding, but it was a bit disappointing. There was only one other table occupied so the atmosphere was lacking, the menu wasn’t as interesting as on a previous visit and some items were ‘off’. I think it must have changed hands.

A busy day today, lots of hire boats about. We haven’t been on the Trent & Mersey for over six years. We used to have a share in the Ownerships boat “Symphony”. At one time it was based at Barton Turns marina. So we used to know this section well. It’s odd how much we remembered and how much we forgot.

When we reached Colwich lock there were two boats in front of us and four waiting to come up. One of the crew from an upcoming boat said that they had been waiting there for over an hour. At Wood End lock some told us that it was chaos at Fradley with boats having nowhere to wait for locks because of all the moored boats. But when we got there is was fairly busy, as is often the case, but not overly so.

We stopped for water outside the cafe and BW depot. There are some loose capping stones here near the original water point. BW have fenced the whole area off (for H&S reasons) and installed a temporary water point. It occurred to me that it would have been quicker & cheaper to have repaired the capping stones !

As we passed the Plum Pudding at Armitage I popped in to make a reservation as it’s our 37th wedding anniversary tomorrow.

Moored for the night just past Wychnor church on the river section. This was a favourite mooring of ours in the past.