The rain cleared up, and the sun came out, so even though we knew the place well, an evening stroll seemed mandatory. It’s an interesting place to wander around: once upon a time a serious inland port with several large basins set above the Severn, it transmogrified into a tourist destination that fell on hard times. The Severn riverside is quite an attraction, and there’s a large public park and so on, immediately next to a sizeable funfair. And even though all the pretty lights were on, and it appeared to be open, we never saw a single person on any of the rides. The place was clearly aimed at day-trippers from the Midlands once upon a time, as most of the eating establishments are tea/ice cream related and shut at 16:30 – proper restaurants are few and far between. Early evening and the place was as quiet as a mouse. Mind you, it wasn’t much different at lunchtime in the rain, come to think of it.

The basins are full of narrowboats and river cruisers; the upper one with the CaRT facilities on the wharf is always busy with boats moving around.

Just across from there are some new-ish flats built around a previously abandoned basin. They’ve been there for quite a few years now, but not one of the private moorings was occupied. Mind you, a tiny stub pontoon and an anchored buoy at the other end to tie up to isn’t exactly our favourite kind of mooring, particularly when there seem to be a few unoccupied berths in the main basins.

Down on the river, The Tontine – now “luxury” flats – has long been a landmark when heading up river, announcing one’s arrival at Stourport. And our old friend from Gloucester Lock and Tewkesbury Edward Elgar was moored up where we’d been the night before. Good job we moved, then – he’s a bit bigger than us.

Coming up off the river,you have a choice: a large wide-beam lock up to the lower basins, then another up to the upper basins. Or a narrow 2-stage staircase lock to the lower basins, and another up to the upper. The broad locks use way more water, and a rumoured to be seriously hard work, so there’s quite an incentive to use the narrow option if you can. It just looks awful tiny when you try and squeeze a boat in!

And we couldn’t go without a picture of the old BWB HQ at The Wharf, and the famous Clocktower (still telling the correct time).

Friday morning, and we wandered down to see Nic and check it was all OK to head on up to Worcester, usually a two day exercise… she asked where we were planning on mooring en-route, and we said “Upton on Severn”.

“Ah…” she said, “I spoke to Upper Lode earlier, and they say the level is coming up and they might need to close later today; Diglis at Worcester are also taking a hard look, and reckon they might need to close tonight”. So we’d get to Upton OK, but maybe no further onSaturday. Calling the Diglis lockkeeper for an update at about 11:00, he said “The river’s coming up faster than we expected: Upper Lode have just closed, and we’ll close just as soon as two narrowboats heading this way get here. We don’t expect to reopen until Monday at the earliest.”

Time for Plan B.

We really didn’t want to go all the way back up the Avon to Stratford (and couldn’t manage it before Essex girl needed to depart), so thought we’d see if we could get a mooring at Pershore or Evesham marinas on the Avon. Both were a day or so upstream, and both had railway stations. We could then come back when herself returned and the Severn had settled down to resume our journey to Stourport,

On returning to Nic with the new plan, she said “Ah… Evesham have just gone on Red Boards, and Pershore will very shortly – there been lots of rain in Rugby and it’s working it’s way down to here…”

Time for Plan C.

After consultation with the Captain, and Nic, it was decided to leave Song & Dance on flood safe moorings near the lock under Nic’s watchful eye, while we all went home for a week. This meant the cook could go to Essex and back from winter quarters, and easier exercise. And so the transport manager was despatched by taxi to Pershore to get a train home – don’t let anyone kid you there’s a useable train service at “Ashchurch For Tewkesbury”. Returning with suitable ground transport, the skipper, the contents of the fridge and freezer, and mounds of dirty washing were stuffed in the car, and on Saturday morning we all headed darn sarf for a week or so. We’ll be back!